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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (378145)	4/22/2008 12:57:47 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573959

Ever wonder about that? Consumer gasoline prices are fairly flat across most markets; not a lot of variance in price. Maybe +/- 2% to 3%. You would think that with their huge profits, in a "competitive maret", that there would be at least one supplier that would undercut the others to gain volume. At the retail level the margins are often too small to cut prices. At a higher level similar prices are not necessarily a sign of any sort of collusion or lack of competition. They can rather be the reverse. No one can raise prices without losing share. And if someone cuts prices, others match them. But in reality prices aren't as uniform as you make them out to be. In different markets in the US you pay different amounts for gasoline. Bay Area - Shell San Mateo 1990 S El Camino Real & W 20th Ave $4.41 Virginia Beach BP 1817 London Bridge Rd & Mirror Lake Dr $3.10 Source gasbuddy.com And if you check out individual areas you will see differences, for example in Virginia Beach the price ranges from $3.10 to $3.51. Nationally in a short search, I found prices from $3.10 to $4.59 (and I expect I might find higher or lower prices if I kept looking. Slightly. Frankly most gasoline usage isn't discretionary spending. In the short run most of it isn't, but some is, and that "some" can effect demand enough to effect prices (cut out 5 to 10% of the gasoline demand and you will effect prices). In the medium run a larger amount is discretionary, and in the long run much of it is discretionary. Say you are in the 30% tax bracket. Do you 'save' 30% of what you earn each year? If not (and few of us do) then the government 'profits' more than you do from whatever work you do. My "profits" aren't my savings, but my after tax income. I suppose you could cut out expenses directly relating to work (for example commuting costs), but the rest is my "profit", in this analogy. If you pay rent chances are the owner you rent from 'profits' more than you 'profit' from your yearly paycheck. That rent comes out of your "profit", so its less than your "profit". Also it is in exchange for a place to live. The government doesn't provide many tax payers with a place to live. And also a landlord doesn't force you to give him money, the exchange is entirely voluntary. On the other hand the government gives you a lot of services, not the least of which is our entire (hopefully stable) economic system Are economic system is not a government service. Its something the government participates in, helps, harms, protects, redirects, etc., but it isn't a gift from the government.