The Endicott Enquirer News from the Southern Tier

17Jun/080

Should the Government Limit Gas Mileage?

 

"To the Hagerstown caller who commented on bad gas mileage: Spot on. If the government limited weight to under 3,800 pounds and power to under 300 horsepower, then this wouldn't be a problem, but we are American."

The Herald-Mail

Why should the government limit the gas mileage of vehicles? Since this is a free market (somewhat) and consumers are supposed to vote with their dollars which is why they will stop buying gas guzzling vehicles eventually. You want to remove the SUVs and large trucks that people don't need from the roads? keep the gas prices going up, it's only a matter of time until people can no longer afford to drive them. Or if we want to look at this from a green perspective then the government should tax the heck out of the larger vehicles on the road and that will force people to change. We may be Americans but hit us in the pocketbook and people will change.

25Mar/083

Higher Gas Prices Would "Ruin" Us

"I just don't understand the Democrats. Here they're preaching that George W. Bush has ruined the economy and we're in a recession, but yet they want to raise gas taxes 50 cents to save the earth. I would never vote for a Democrat after hearing this. This would ruin the whole U.S. if this would ever happen." - Boonsboro

The Herald-Mail

Ok, so I don't like high gas prices either, but in case you haven't noticed, the gas prices are tied to the commodities markets and the commodities markets fluctuate when you have things like wars in the Middle East. If you don't like high gas prices then maybe you should rethink being a republican who believes the gas tax is the worst thing that could happen. If you want to lower gas prices then you would do well to write a letter to your president and let him know that the instability in the middle east is what he really ought to actually be working on sorting out. Don't blame the Democrats for something that the Republicans are just as guilty for in many other forms.

21Feb/080

Oil Prices: Do We Need the Free Market?

So I am left to wonder why oil prices have yet shot up again. And once again I come to the same conclusion, investors feel the need to speculate on something they know nothing about. Here are some reasons they are nervous:

  • OPEC might cut the production of oil
  • A refinery blew up in Texas again
  • we are still at war in Iraq
  • There is still political turmoil in the world

I find it amusing that the only real issue on that list is that a refinery blew up and it wasn't even that big of one. The rest of the items on that list are purely speculative as to how they could affect actual oil supplies. These investors decide what amounts to what you pay at the pump on emotional responses to political situations around the globe, not on hard facts or for actions that they know will be taken. Why do we let people with absolutely no real connection to politics, world events, etc. decide and subsequently, artificially inflate the price of oil when in reality there is no need to keep raising the price of a barrel.

As much as I like the free market, I'm really to the point where I think we ought to remove the trading of oil from the free market because the decisions to buy and sell are based on emotion rather than reality. Why should I suffer because some stupid investor is jumpy? Step away from your day trading station, go get some sleep and lay off the caffeine too.