Off Topic Post

I'm sure all of those people will look back when they retire and say that spending $100+ per week on gas was a worthy cause.

 no, probably not.  the majority of America is fairly ignorant of how the economy works and what goes into their retirement.

but they will love spending their enormous nest eggs once they retire, and won't give a second thought to how they came about.

 LDM: you should read crash proof by peter schiff, i think u would enjoy the read

 ok.  i'll check it out.

what? the fed. gov. makes twice the money per gallon then the oil producers do,states make even more.

its the feds stopping domestic increased production of petroleum products that force US company's to buy crude from OPEC.

for you young puppies,the Saudis confiscated the US company's that found,drilled and brought the Mideastern reserves to production. just like Chavez in Venezuela nationalized the US companies.

for someone to call it ''big oil'' shows how ply-able their thought is,if you want to make it ad call it ''big''...

did anyone notice that in last weeks Congressional hearing with ''BIG oil'' no one ask ''how can the gov. help to bring as prices back down to $1.50''?

why don't the call it "Big Guvment" 

Federal and state governments take about $0.80 of every gallon. Oil companies take about $0.10-$0.12 in profits.  The oil industry averaged about 10.7% profit on its revenues last year.  Microsoft was over 16%.  Why is it a great thing when Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and My Space can make big profits, yet everyone cries when the oil companies do the same thing.  Has anyone taken a look at insurance industry profits?  Same thing.

Oil companies can't even open refineries in the United States anymore because of burdensome environmental and safety regulations anyone who know anything about the EPA and OSHA knows what I mean.  

If you want to be pissed at something, be pissed that we have no idea what Iraq does with its billions in oil revenue yet we continue to pay for the reconstruction.   What are the odds that the people in power in the new Iraqi government are taking the revenues for their own personal gain?  Pretty good I'd say, as they sure are not spending it in Iraq.  This is a travesty and another example of the ineptitude of our government, because it is too big.  

 Haha. You're right. The government is always there to wield the antitrust club or some other law or regulation in the event someone is too good at what they do. 

I'd love to see a breakdown of what each player gets from every dollar spent on gasoline. Beginning from the going rate for crude, to the ships that carry it to  be refined, to the refiners, to the transporters to the local gas stations. I'm guessing that THE LIONS SHARE OF WHAT YOU PAY is profits taken in the futures markets by speculators who do nothing more than make electronic trades claiming to take risks on purchases made with manipulated information.

The Windfall Profits Tax is the way to go since what's needed is refining capacity that "Big Oil" refuses to invest in. I believe that the government should tax the Oil Companies and build a couple of refinerys with the dollars collected.

Lastly, when Bush met the Saudis last week asking them to increase production, they said THE DEMAND FOR OIL DIDN'T WARRANT an increase. Does this suggest the bottleneck is in refining and in fact there is ample crude waiting in the wings?

gas is still fucking cheap for the purpose it serves... it fucking gets you places you need to go on your own convenience...

I can drive 10 miles for the same amount it costs me to buy a soda at the gas station... that's not that bad

I love how you intentionally quote the Saudi meeting incorrectly to support your cause. They actually did increase their output which was followed by a call from the IEA for other OPEC producing nations to do the same. As for the speculators, they do exist, but they are given way too much credit. As the Bloomberg article points out, it's an easy scapegoat to blame speculators when speaking to an uneduated public that won't do their homework. I'd suggest looking behind the scenes at what the people with the money interest, such as the Saudis, are doing. For example:

"If speculation is part of the reason oil prices are so high, then why didn't the Saudis say they are investing billions of dollars to increase production capacity to 12 million barrels daily and that they will increase exports to bring down the price and head off conservation by consuming nations?"

" May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, will increase crude production next month in response to rising demand from its customers and a request by U.S. President George W. Bush to ease the strain of record prices."

To be fair, the increase wasn't a lot and prolly not significant, but it was an increase.

"audi Arabia's decision to increase oil output should be followed by other producers to curb record prices, the International Energy Agency said.

``It is far from being satisfactory enough,'' Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA, said in an interview at a McCloskey coal conference in Nice, France, today. ``We would like to see other countries join the efforts of Saudi Arabia and key oil producers need to make major investments to step up efforts.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aSU1nzBoEMMc

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=awWr1bz4nKEU

Ya Waco Coke used to cost a nicklel too