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Thomas Elias writes in the Los Angeles Daily News that just one week before many California motorists began paying upwards of $4.30 per gallon for gasoline, oil tanker Teesta Spirit left Los Angeles headed for ports on the west coast of Mexico carrying more 300,000 barrels of gasoline refined in California. At a time when oil companies were raising prices by as much as $1 per gallon in some regions, oil companies like Chevron and Phillips 66 shipped about 100 million gallons of gasoline out of California. "Oil refiners have kept the state running on empty and now they are sending fuel refined in California abroad just as the specter of low inventories drives huge price increases," says Jamie Court, president of the Consumer Watchdog advocacy group.
According to Elias as the oil companies were shipping out that fuel, they reaped unprecedented profits reportedly approaching $1.50 for every gallon of gasoline they sold at the higher prices. "Gasoline prices are determined by market forces, and individuals who understand how commodity markets work have recently testified that those markets are working as they should," responded Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association, to charges of price gouging. "All of the many government investigations into gasoline markets in recent years have concluded that supply and demand are the primary reason gas prices go up and down." Kathleen Foote, who heads up the antitrust division at the California attorney general's office, agreed that the industry operates like an oligopoly in the state. But proving price fixing is difficult in a field where only a few players exist. "This system is made to break because oil refineries keep it running on empty," concludes Court. "They have every incentive to create a price spike like this."
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @07:04AM
Buy from the lowest bidder, sell to the highest bidder. Rich get richer, poor get poorer. Stuff your fucking face while your neighbors starve and die in a pit of their own shit. That's how CAPITALISM WORKS, motherfuckers! GO, USA, GO!! FUCKING THE WORLD FOR PROFIT!!!!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @07:36AM
Californians, amongst the highest quality of life people in human history, are complaining that their gas is getting closer to the world average while Mexicans, with the lowest standard of living on a continent, are getting that fuel instead and you call that fucking the world.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @12:37PM
Californians, amongst the highest quality of life
Keep in mind that there are many people with a very low quality of life living in California. People living in areas with very high crime, with low access to quality food, and that are not served well by public transportation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @07:40PM
Keep in mind that capitalism has a greater chance of solving that problem than Socialism or Marxism. As the OP unwittingly illustrated, capitalism naturally redistributes wealth. Those low-cost suppliers make money and create jobs. Those high-paying customers lose wealth in the transaction. The middle man increases wealth and hopefully expands operations and creates jobs. This in turn increases demand on the low-cost supplier. The low-cost supplier increases prices. The middle-man increases prices. The wealthy lose more wealth. The low-cost supplier sees how vital he is to middle man's operation and increases prices some more. The middle man passes this on to the wealthy man. The wealthy man complains to the middle man. The middle man complains to the supplier. The supplier refrains from altering prices anymore, as much as it can - until something in nature affects the system. The middle man does the same. The wealthy man still grumbles but still pays.
no one can truly help the poor but the poor themselves. give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish. you can lead a man to water but you can't make him fish.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @02:49AM
no one can truly help the poor but the poor themselves. give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish. you can lead a man to water but you can't make him fish.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Too bad the current system is teach a man to fish, lead him to water, then he finds out he's not allowed in the water.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @12:54PM
Once again, someone has confused A MARKET with Capitalism.
Capitalism refers to a method of production where there is an ownership class and a separate employee class.
The opposite of that is an operation where the workers are the owners and all workers are equal and all decisions are made by a democratic vote with each vote being equal to any other vote.
...and if all the Capitalists had died yesterday, MARKETS would still exist.
So would profit.
.
How to determine what economic system you have:
Is the means of production owned solely by the workers? -- YES --> Marxism|Socialism|Communism
|
| NO
v
Can the workers leave for another job at will? -- YES --> Capitalism
|
| NO
v
Can the owner kill any worker without legal repercussions? -- NO --> Feudalism
|
| YES
v
Slavery
-- gewg_