Gas Price Subjective Case of Economics
Isabel P. Ball
September 07, 2005
It’s peaceful at the gas pumps in San Diego and elsewhere these days, in spite of the glaring incremental, yet irreversible gas price climb. Increasing gas prices have become a perfunctory topic banners in the newspapers, discussions in radio circuits, TV forums, and seemingly for a moment, away from the minds of the once clamoring publics against such increases in the past. Just total and complete quietude has seemed to reign among us consumers. Is it our quiet way of raising a white flag of surrender? So it seems, anyway. A form of passivity has sucked us all up, to focus on the more pressing task of trying to stay afloat, but sadly, with very little success.
The hurt in our pockets caused by the gas increase angers us, though we muster to take it in stride. Revulsion is what I feel at the gas pump as I watch the price meter racing speedily against the much slower and constrained gallon hand. My weary mind entreats for something to happen to liberate us from the yoke, that is the runaway gas price, now registering a new record at $70/barrel.
One time at the pump, I’ve witnessed a consumer filling up and accounting every penny he has on his hand to come up with the afforded $5 quantity. Together we griped and whined, to the point, we made a pact to do something, to stop the greed frenzy consuming the oil czars, comfy in their life, as oil money is being funneled into their oil largess fund already overflowing.
To attest, the latest figures recently released by the cable news based on their own research, indicated cool profits made by the three major oil companies, in the recent period, as follow: Exxon Company $7.64 billion, Shell Company $5.23 billion Shell, and Conoco $3.13 billion.
How easily have we publics become so pacific, to accept the situation blindly, ignoring a blatant thievery occurring before our eyes, and in the process, make ourselves stupid accomplices? Hence, we are legitimizing an act of public larceny.
As satiated beasts, we are easily satisfied, tolerant, and lackadaisical. In that condition, we have created a monster, symbolically, the oil producers. Efficaciously, using the clout of supply and demand as shield, oil giants, viewing us only as motes, have made us powerless to contain or destroy them.
Every time I fill up, I am imagining a scene where a grinning, hideous phantom is comfortably watching from a one-way glass, swank office or penthouse. In a commanding view, he sights his gas dominions and distributions, sees the queue of customers, and hearing all the cash registers busily cranking and stacking on in piles of dollars by the minute worldwide is music to his ears. Heartless, he is oblivious of the weary faces of the public at the pumps filling up their guzzlers.
The typical character described in the foregoing happens to correlate to an economic philosophy. Practical, the author tries to elucidate his point that supply and demand theory is but an artificial situation made to propagate lopsided profit at the expense of the consumers.
Taken from a dissertation abstract written by Vladimir Domirnikov titled, “Iron Laws of Economics.” He opines. “Let's take, say, the most simple and less controversial of these laws, namely: the price of goods or services determined by the correlation between supply and demand. That is, the greater a requirement of a product — the greater its cost, and vice versa. Imagine an elderly woman, rather well-to-do, who rents a room to the young graduate student working upon his dissertation. By some situational reasons, the demand for the rented dwelling place increases, and the hostess of the apartment would, by idea, desire to increase the rental payment. But here, she, from compassion for the awkward material condition of her lodger, prefers not to increase the price…I, however, do not assert, that now, all relations between lodgers and landlords are based on the "humanitarian" principles of compassion and mutual aid. But this, in general, regrettable fact testifies not to the power of the economic laws, but more about the lack of humanity of the average person.” (20th World Congress of Philosophy August 10-15, 1998).
In the following, Mr. Domirnikov attests to the validity of human vanity as highly affecting the economy. He says, “It is rather easy to notice, that all of the motives, by which the economic "laws" were broken in these examples, are motives of the moral or psyhological order - compassion, gratitude, fear, philanthropy (human kindness). Thus, we find, an essential part of economics depends on ethics and psychology.”
As we know, costing begins right from the source, from the world’s oilfields of the 11-member nations that is OPEC, composed mostly of the kingdoms in the Middle East, some in Africa, and South America. As an organization, OPEC holds supreme power and control, to dictate the world’s oil market price, thence the price at the pump.
Is it any wonder why we see outrageous lifestyle of the oil rich nations, or of those leaders who have control of the riches from oil? They lavish on the money that we grudgingly pay at the pump, as end consumers, displayed in their ownership of grand homes, modern gadgetries, luxurious travels, harem of women, yachts, and now, monies that are suspected to fund terrorism.
Only our vigilance as a united consumer, and a political will to demand production of gas-less vehicles, remain our only hope of total liberation from the scores of years of bondage from the un-humanitarian gas producers OPEC, et al. That day might just be around the corner, when the media makes a surprise announcement that a new technology has been developed to wean us out from any oil base fuel. That would indeed be the day of deliverance.
The hurt in our pockets caused by the gas increase angers us, though we muster to take it in stride. Revulsion is what I feel at the gas pump as I watch the price meter racing speedily against the much slower and constrained gallon hand. My weary mind entreats for something to happen to liberate us from the yoke, that is the runaway gas price, now registering a new record at $70/barrel.
One time at the pump, I’ve witnessed a consumer filling up and accounting every penny he has on his hand to come up with the afforded $5 quantity. Together we griped and whined, to the point, we made a pact to do something, to stop the greed frenzy consuming the oil czars, comfy in their life, as oil money is being funneled into their oil largess fund already overflowing.
To attest, the latest figures recently released by the cable news based on their own research, indicated cool profits made by the three major oil companies, in the recent period, as follow: Exxon Company $7.64 billion, Shell Company $5.23 billion Shell, and Conoco $3.13 billion.
How easily have we publics become so pacific, to accept the situation blindly, ignoring a blatant thievery occurring before our eyes, and in the process, make ourselves stupid accomplices? Hence, we are legitimizing an act of public larceny.
As satiated beasts, we are easily satisfied, tolerant, and lackadaisical. In that condition, we have created a monster, symbolically, the oil producers. Efficaciously, using the clout of supply and demand as shield, oil giants, viewing us only as motes, have made us powerless to contain or destroy them.
Every time I fill up, I am imagining a scene where a grinning, hideous phantom is comfortably watching from a one-way glass, swank office or penthouse. In a commanding view, he sights his gas dominions and distributions, sees the queue of customers, and hearing all the cash registers busily cranking and stacking on in piles of dollars by the minute worldwide is music to his ears. Heartless, he is oblivious of the weary faces of the public at the pumps filling up their guzzlers.
The typical character described in the foregoing happens to correlate to an economic philosophy. Practical, the author tries to elucidate his point that supply and demand theory is but an artificial situation made to propagate lopsided profit at the expense of the consumers.
Taken from a dissertation abstract written by Vladimir Domirnikov titled, “Iron Laws of Economics.” He opines. “Let's take, say, the most simple and less controversial of these laws, namely: the price of goods or services determined by the correlation between supply and demand. That is, the greater a requirement of a product — the greater its cost, and vice versa. Imagine an elderly woman, rather well-to-do, who rents a room to the young graduate student working upon his dissertation. By some situational reasons, the demand for the rented dwelling place increases, and the hostess of the apartment would, by idea, desire to increase the rental payment. But here, she, from compassion for the awkward material condition of her lodger, prefers not to increase the price…I, however, do not assert, that now, all relations between lodgers and landlords are based on the "humanitarian" principles of compassion and mutual aid. But this, in general, regrettable fact testifies not to the power of the economic laws, but more about the lack of humanity of the average person.” (20th World Congress of Philosophy August 10-15, 1998).
In the following, Mr. Domirnikov attests to the validity of human vanity as highly affecting the economy. He says, “It is rather easy to notice, that all of the motives, by which the economic "laws" were broken in these examples, are motives of the moral or psyhological order - compassion, gratitude, fear, philanthropy (human kindness). Thus, we find, an essential part of economics depends on ethics and psychology.”
As we know, costing begins right from the source, from the world’s oilfields of the 11-member nations that is OPEC, composed mostly of the kingdoms in the Middle East, some in Africa, and South America. As an organization, OPEC holds supreme power and control, to dictate the world’s oil market price, thence the price at the pump.
Is it any wonder why we see outrageous lifestyle of the oil rich nations, or of those leaders who have control of the riches from oil? They lavish on the money that we grudgingly pay at the pump, as end consumers, displayed in their ownership of grand homes, modern gadgetries, luxurious travels, harem of women, yachts, and now, monies that are suspected to fund terrorism.
Only our vigilance as a united consumer, and a political will to demand production of gas-less vehicles, remain our only hope of total liberation from the scores of years of bondage from the un-humanitarian gas producers OPEC, et al. That day might just be around the corner, when the media makes a surprise announcement that a new technology has been developed to wean us out from any oil base fuel. That would indeed be the day of deliverance.
Print
Email
