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quote:
Originally posted by EdEKit:
quote:
Originally posted by Pogo142:
Sowell is certainly right about one thing, "political rhetoric is rising." But as usual, it's coming from the apologists for the oil corporations who leave out facts and mislead the public. And I would say Armrey sure knows about demagoguery, he and his fellow demigods Delay and Gingrich, as well as with help from others in the corporate media like Sowell, have made an art of it as the right wing smears their political opposition and pushed their right wing politics and corporate agenda down the throats of the American people.

Price gouging does have a meaning and it's when forces help manipulate profit to rise sharply due to unexpected or out of the ordinary events and hardships. Like during a drought water companies raising the price of water, or doctors and pharmacies rasing their prices of during flu or cold seasons, etc. There are certain commodities that are necessities.

The price of oil is rising due to the wars in the region and Bush's threats against Iran. China's needs are expanding but are well below our consumption and not a serious threat at this time. I don't want to misquote the exact number of barrels China consumes but it's no where near our consumption) They are already securing other sources in the world like Africa and Venezuela. They also buy from Iran and Russia I believe too.

We can debate the effectiveness of price controls but New York and San Francisco have price controls because rents were out of control and it all had to due with profits. When we are dealing with a product like oil, which there is no alternative market it is like a monopoly and we do need some type regulations. The governments are "instituted" by the governed to secure all our rights, not just the profits of a few.

The building of new oil refineries are not due to acts of congress or environmentalists. Just where they can be built. You can't build one where it endangers people or the environment. It's the oil corporations decision not to build any new refineries which shortened up ready supplies and pushed the prices to fluctuate on the spot market.

Shows you how decadent our society really is, not only is middle America sacrificing their children and their dollars to a war for oil profits in the Mideast the corporations are then turning around and soaking them at the pumps, putting even more strain on our lives.

When is congress going to be concerned about protecting the wages and lives of the average America as they push their protecting Corporate profits and Globalization and anti union agenda?

Bottom line is Oil Corporations are having record profits.
Labor Unions. It is time American working people put the Fat Cats on a diet for the good of the country, and the health of the Fat Cats.

Eveyone should take a short course in the history of colonial Spain, boring as all get out until the comparison with the USA is made. We are making the same mistake Spain made in the 16th and 17th Centuries. We are using up our wealth by having others do the hard work. While we sit around enjoying Our Steak and lobster, all the capital in the country is being squandered on cheap goods from outside our borders. It is a formula for collapse, and we have been doing it for about 65 years now.



FINALLY, some GREAT thinking going on!!!!! I am getting nauseous at the other way of thinking KNOWING it is wrong...

Thanks to both of you!!!!
I can see that the BLOOD, the SWEAT, and the TEARS of our forefathers mean NOTHING to many here on this forum... and that is sickening!!!!

We have the mindset going on that California and New York had about 15 years ago... and they almost collapsed...

California almost lost ALL their power generating plants... everything was going to heck in a hand basket... at least they have NOW learned to be humbled instead of spouting off stuff that is arrogant, at best... They USED to do that...

NOW, 15 years later, people here in the South are getting the SAME arrogance going that almost toppled the other parts of our Nation...

Just goes to show ya, we ARE at least 15 years behind times here!!!
To be fair, California suffered because:
1) Enron caused artificial power shortage to drive up costs.
2) California passed massively stupid laws that Enron exploited.
3) California discouraged new power plants from coming online.

Plenty of blame to go around. Grey Davis lost his job. Enron execs in jail and broke. Enron employees lost their pensions. Unfortunately, California legislators kept their jobs.
Enron manipulated the market but were only one of a number of companies. The transcripts of the Enron tapes of their cold and greedy nature are chilling. There was another North Mid West and Middle Central East company but I forget the name. BBC journalist Greg Palast did a number of good articles on it.

They "downsized" their repair people and left generators decay and didn't place them. Then when the crises hit they failed and caused shortages across the country. The oil corporations basically did the same with refineries.

Davis was a corporate democrat and hose "stupid laws" that California passed were passed by corporate democrats and republicans that were heavily lobbied by Enron. I am not exactly sure how much money they poured into politicians "Campaign War Chests" but I know they lobbied hard and obviously were influential.

The real problem lies in corporations that control our corrupt political system, our media and their corrupt practices and unbridled greed.
quote:
Originally posted by NashBama:
Sort of, I agree that we have a bad trade imbalance and we are importing too much from China and out sourcing our jobs. I agree that this is a recipe for disaster, but labor unions won't help. A company that has to choose between building a plant in the US and dealing with a union or building one in China without unions would pick the later.

Get rid of illegals undercutting American wages and let the market run it's course. When a company offers fair wages, they'll have workers. America is a consumer nation, so by building plants in the US, a lot of money is saved in shipping. When a company is too cheap, turnover will be high and profit will be lost. Paying fair wages and building in the US means more profit in the long run.

Illegal immigrants and unions are short circuiting this system. Unions demand too much and illegals will work for far less, so the illegals get the jobs and Americans in unions complain about wages being too low.
Nashbama. UNIONIZATION STOPS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, IT CAN NEARLY STOP LEGAL IMMIGRATION.
quote:
Nashbama. UNIONIZATION STOPS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, IT CAN NEARLY STOP LEGAL IMMIGRATION.


No, it doesn't, that's just stupid. Unionize illegals and you'll just have more non-union illegals come over to undercut them. Employers want the cheapest labor. Unionizing means labor will cost more, so employers will hire non-union instead.

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