Fuel Prices – No
High fuel pricesare NOT necessary! The fuel that we use in this and most other countries starts as crude oil. Consider a barrel of this crude oil to be at the top of a pyramid and at each step below it is a different type of fuel derived from it. Now the price of that barrel of oil directly effects the prices of all the products below it.
There are a few reasons why the high prices of these fuels are not nessesary and just a ploy for the rich to get richer. One thing is the price of a barrel of oil changes every day and goes up the more people buy these commodities at higher prices. The only way the prices of oil go down is when sales of it go down based on the previous days sales and predictions by market annalists.
Another reason the price of oil is so high is depending on the state there can be up to a forty cent per gallon tax on gasoline. So if you have an average SUV or pick-up truck and fill your tank about eight dollars just went to the government. Also what is this 9/10 of a cent for fuel? My opinion is it's a sales pitch. People see $3.00 a gallon but what they don't notice most of the time is that 9/10 of a cent. Over time it can add up to hundreds of dollars per vehicle over it's lifetime.
Now I do understand that these companies have to pay employees to refine the fuel and deliver it to the gas statiions and they themselves have employees to pay. However why is it that in Pennsylvania gas is self serve and more expensive than New Jersey that has to pay people to pump the fuel.
Answer to that is simple. There are higher taxes, transporting costs, and so on. But this all added up doesn't account for the cost difference. That's where you have price gouging. It's a simple business plan. Make it so you and your compeditors raise all the prices in the area so the consumer has no choice to pay it. It is illegal in theory but any station owner would say prove it. Honestly there is no way to prove it because the increased revenue will filter to the market and the people that control the prices can raise them.
