It's not gouging if there's other folks selling -- then it's either cleverly taking advantage of people's buying habits, or stupidly pissing off your customers.
There are things for which the market should remain free, and things for which it should be regulated. If a few gas stations gouge their customers, and some don't, then the market will correct things. If an entire industry adopts policies that are going to have severe economic repercussions (say, for example, that the oil industry had a history of bankrupting itself and leaving the nation without a fuel supply) then either the the US government will step in earlier, or the Chinese government, in the form of it's army, will do so later.
That's not even bringing up the markets that every republican wants to strictly regulate, but never calls it a 'regulated market'. (Recreational drugs, prostitution, rounding up your kids and selling them -- these are all markets that are tightly regulated, yet that's not how folks talk about them).
Agree 100%. Except I think there is deep and insidious sinistry beneath all this. Greenspan: But.... but... but...... I.... I.... I..... th-th-th-thought market self-regulation was a GOOD idea!!!!! I-I-I-I d-d-d-didn't knowwwwww........
Fukn asshole.... he shoulda stuck to his clarinet....
When a walmart came to the town I work in, Murphy drove down the price the other gas stations were charging. Then after a year or so, it was part of the band of thieves. All they did was divvy up the suckers.
20 miles up the road there is a small gas station that is back to beating their prices again and it is on my way home, 7 miles after leaving the divided section of the highway I drive between work and home.
Unleaded $1.32 litre = $5.02 per US mini gallon $6.01 per real Imperial gallon
LPG 71.5c litre = $2.72 per US mini gallon $3.25 per real Imperial gallon
My '93 Nissan Patrol runs 99% of the time on LPG. Only on petrol when I run out of LPG or about 10 km once per month to operate fuel pump and prevent seals /diaphragm from drying out.
Not here, thank goodness. I believe that east of the Nullarbor some parts of the country have ethanol added. Yuk.
My Patrol is thirsty enough already without ethanol adding about
15% extra fuel use penalty. LPG is the way to go, very little pollution and only a small increase in fuel consumption, very much offset by the price differential. My GPS reports that I have travelled 13748 km at a fuel cost of $1971.64 since I bought it, max speed of 126 km/hr (110 legal limit but I was on a private road ) and a moving average speed of 62 km/hr and I am 63 metres above sea level!
Most of our wheat is exported, about 95%, in competition with subsidised wheat from the USA and there is none left to waste on ethanol production.
Many years ago my ex employer used to buy in ethanol for use as race car fuel. It was a by-product from charcoal manufacture which was used in a relatively low volume cast iron smelter.
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