Oh, come now. I know you have no answer to the questions posed, as "price gouging," "corporate greed" and "oil company conspiracy" are vacuous tropes which defy any explanation that will pass even minimal scrutiny. But even if you can't say something clever while failing to answer, at least say something that makes sense. Or, better yet, don't say anything at all and be grateful that you don't live in the great Socialist Republic of ___________ (pick your poison, as all socialist societies are either failed or headed for failure).

That's all quite right, but I wish the fellow had been a bit more polished in his presentation. I'm still listening to the Milton Friedman video. It's kind of long, but very interesting so far.

Here's another question for the lefties of the world: If I own a gas station and there is an emergency situation of some type that puts gas in short supply, why shouldn't I be able to charge the exact price people are willing (if grudgingly) to pay? Economics 101 will dictate a reasonable price under whatever circumstances are present. If I charge too much, I won't sell any gas. If I charge less than what people under the circumstances are willing to pay, long lines will form at my pumps.

Now, you may say: "Look, there's an emergency situation. Don't raise your price. Help your fellow man in a time of need." Well, I'm not a social service agency. I'm a businessman. The whole point of the exercise is to maximize my profit. In the emergency situation, I plan to charge only as much as people are willing to pay and not one cent more.

And as soon as I charge less than what people are willing to pay, I get mile long lines and people pay not with money, but with time, and for many people time is more precious than money. Or they don't get any of the product at all. So people pay one way or the other.

One need look no further than Venezuela to see how well socialism and price controls work. Those poor people can't get food and basic necessities such as toilet paper because the great dictator in that "benevolent" socialist society won't let market forces work. Price controls never, ever work.

 

Ok folks , calm down. It’s not about complex Economics etc. Fuel is a commodity and price of (benzin , diesel etc) works the same way as the Stock Market- it’s all based on “speculations”.

I enjoy low gasoline prices in TX.
Went to CA and Gas/gallon was up by a $1.00.
Ouch 🤕

 

$2.88 for diesel 2 miles from my home.
CA claims higher fuel prices on state taxes and property taxes, who with high cost of RE in CA are higher.
That makes me wonder for years as years ago, I used to live 4 miles from refinery in CA and gas was more expensive there, than 600 miles away in Las Vegas, when Nevada doesn't have its own refinery and is using mostly fuels pump from CA.
Still truck stop along CA I5 can have diesel priced on the level with Nevada.

 

No mysteries.
Cost of business including savings from volume sales.

 

The price difference between CA and Nevada is due to the fact that CA imports foreign oil, ie non-US oil whereas Nevada uses US oil. It's really a multi-faceted problem, read WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/califor...em-11569884224 It's also related to the ultra low sulfur requirements that California has imposed on gasoline, whereas the rest of the country has not joined. California chooses not to use WTI(West Texas Crude Oil), rather it chooses to import most of its crude via tankers from Saudi Arabia!

 

You missed the news, that Nevada is not producing fuels, only imports it from CA. At least Las Vegas area.
For years I've been coming to Las Vegas and once in a while after filling there, the diesel car who used to make 500 miles on the tank, makes 600 miles on it.
I concluded that I run into rare fuel delivery from Wyoming, or whatever. Normal citizens have no way to learn where the fuel comes from.

 

Ouch, guess I won't be moving to Nevada anytime soon!