Major trucker strike coming soon due to fuel costs.

[Tilar]

A good friend that lives local to me has shut down his trucks and he's put a sign in the front windows that read "On Strike untill fuel prices drop".

He might as well cross it out and put " For Sale".

You're right. And there are already a lot of these rigs for sale now, and more to come. The days of the owner/operator are numbered at this rate. It's easier for the big companies to pass on the fuel surcharges than it is for the little guy.

He's about to retirement age anyway, so retiring a year or two early at this point really isnt that big a deal. He'd probably be money ahead.

[Ponch ®]

I wonder how this is gonna affect the truckers in the near future.

[hemihead]

 
If we get into a long-term situation where the oil really just gets more expensive than it used to be, then what would you have the govt do about it?   

Is it really greed & corruption for them to just let the prices rise the way the market demands?  Are you sure it's not a way of easing the American public into the unavoidable future as painlessly as possible?



We all know that enviro-greenies are deluded when they accuse Detriot of being "in bed" with the oil industry.  Some of those people think Detroit could easily build 60-mpg cars (without any compromises in materials & safety & power whatsoever) any time they felt like it, but it's all a conspiracy not to do it and keep the public bending over for the oil.   

Well, I think people are being being just as deluded when they act like the oil price is a sham.  The oil industry has some control, but they can't just wave a magic wand and bring the oil back down to $30/barrel whenever they feel like it.

But the prices are a sham when oil companies post a $48 Billion profit . Gasoline and Diesel Fuel are just 2 of the products they get from a barrel of oil . And isn't it funny that no matter what happens in the world , good and bad , the price goes up ?

[PocketThunder]

And isn't it funny that no matter what happens in the world , good and bad , the price goes up ?

But isnt that because the population is always going up and the needs of the population are what drives the need for oil?

[Mike DC]

 
The price is going up because of obvious reasons. 

More consumers worldwide + more consumption per person + higher costs to extract the oil + lower US dollar value = rising prices.  That covers just about every major long-term factor in the oil game.  All pointing in the same direction. 

(And that's not including any middle-eastern political factors or the internal pressure on Washington to reduce our long-term oil dependence.  I'm just rattling off the raw supply & demand issues alone here.)

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The $48 billion dolllars in profit is frustrating to hear about, but the truth is that it's normal.  It's not a big increase in the profit margin.  It's basically just a regular-sized profit margin and a HUGE gross oil business.


If you wanna argue that Big Oil shouldn't be allowed to make that kind of money off the public, then you're basically arguing that oil should be gov't-regulated as a utility.  That's a whole different debate. 

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The problem is not that we're suddenly being screwed so badly by the oil industry. 

The problem is that as a society, the US has basically decided that unlimited amounts of crude oil should be available almost as cheaply as water.  Unfortunately it's not. 

     

[hemihead]

Then why,  in winter when supply is down the price goes up ? Spring comes the price goes up . Speculators on Wall St. guess at the world affairs 6 months ahead of time ,  the price goes up . Housing Market takes a dump ( which has nothing to do with oil ) and the price goes up . See what I'm getting at ? Seems the laws of supply and demand don't quite mesh here .
IMO , if we want to get any kind of financial strength back in this country we need to go back on the Gold Standard . The greedy people on Wall St. that have this country backed by paper has really screwed this country since 64 .

[PocketThunder]

Then why,  in winter when supply is down the price goes up ? Spring comes the price goes up . Speculators on Wall St. guess at the world affairs 6 months ahead of time ,  the price goes up . Housing Market takes a dump ( which has nothing to do with oil ) and the price goes up . See what I'm getting at ? Seems the laws of supply and demand don't quite mesh here .
IMO , if we want to get any kind of financial strength back in this country we need to go back on the Gold Standard . The greedy people on Wall St. that have this country backed by paper has really screwed this country since 64 .

what happend in 1964?  wasnt the country doomed since the federal reserve act in 1913?

[Mike DC]

As for the winter/summer oil price thing, that's true.  There is some amount of speculation involved in oil prices. 

But that's not a huge chunk of the price.  Removing that factor is not exactly gonna give us back $1/gallon gasoline again.  I don't know exactly what percetange of the pump price it is, but I think it might knock off half a dollar or something if you scrapped the entire system of oil distribution.

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Yeah, we're basically screwed with money ever since 1913.  Although Nixon's abandonment of the gold standard sure didn't help. 

(And why do we even believe that they still have the gold in Fort Knox in the first place?  There has hardly been any outsiders checking the gold in our lifetimes.  And it's a known fact that the once-large silver reserves put in their charge have been squandered & lost in stupid ways a long time ago.)


As I understand it, the Federal Reserve and the entire US currency system is basically unconstitutional in the first place.  The founding fathers didn't want their new government in the money business at all.

 

[Todd Wilson]

 
The price is going up because of obvious reasons. 

More consumers worldwide + more consumption per person + higher costs to extract the oil + lower US dollar value = rising prices.       

Heard on the news today oil is trading at record prices. They also said the demand  is 2% lower then last year. That blows the supply and demand theory out of the water.


Todd

[Brock Samson]

demand is lower where?...
the demand in the "third world" is growing all the time...
hence the higher prices,..

[Mike DC]

That's what I mean. 

Right now it's basically 1947 in the fast-developing Asian countries.  Everyone's been working hard at those manufacturing jobs for years, and now they're crashing the middle-class party we've had in America ever since the end of WWII.

[Brock Samson]

that's right, for example  Buick makes and sells more Buicks in China then they do here,.. in fact they have newer versions of Buicks there then we get here in the good 'ol U.S. of A.

[Lowprofile]

I wonder how this is gonna affect the truckers in the near future.

Well, you know I had to go check it out!  lol! Thanks, I needed a laugh bro!

You know, all this Geo-political bullshit aside, The bottom line is MY BOTTOM LINE! I, as a businessman have to change the way I do business in order to survive. I have many friends who have already parked their trucks, and a few have had them repo'd........

I have changed my driving habits, use Idleaire as much as possible, and I am looking into installing fuel saving devices on my truck. Every little bit helps.

[Mike DC]

     
And just like in the 1970s, Detriot will get caught with its pants down.   

When gasoline gets high enough to begin to really affect new vehicle sales, they'll get caught just like they did in 1974:  Having spent the previous 15-20 years concentrating too much on their biggest & most gas-intensive products, and having left the economy market too much in the hands of the foreign brands. 

The top brass at Detriot will be standing around with their d*cks in their hands and wearing the same stupified reaction as they did 35 years ago.
 
   

[Brock Samson]

no they wont, they'll retire with a 10 million dollor bonus.

   "Countrywide, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup all suffered huge losses last year.  Countrywide lost $1.6 billion while both Merrill Lynch and Citigroup lost $10 billion.  The stocks of all three companies plummeted.   Despite these gigantic losses, Mozilo, O'Neal, and Prince profited greatly.
O'Neal and Prince have resigned and Mozilo is expected to also resign if Bank of America buys Countrywide.  Waxman stated that O'Neal walked away with a $161 million retirement package; Prince got a $10 million bonus, $28 million in unvested stock options, and $1.5 million in annual perquisites; while Mozilo's total compensation was over $120 million."

  excerpt as per...
http://originatortimes.com/content/templates/standard.aspx?articleid=2922&zoneid=5

[hemihead]

no they wont, they'll retire with a 10 million dollor bonus.

   "Countrywide, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup all suffered huge losses last year.  Countrywide lost $1.6 billion while both Merrill Lynch and Citigroup lost $10 billion.  The stocks of all three companies plummeted.   Despite these gigantic losses, Mozilo, O'Neal, and Prince profited greatly.
O'Neal and Prince have resigned and Mozilo is expected to also resign if Bank of America buys Countrywide.  Waxman stated that O'Neal walked away with a $161 million retirement package; Prince got a $10 million bonus, $28 million in unvested stock options, and $1.5 million in annual perquisites; while Mozilo's total compensation was over $120 million."

  excerpt as per...
http://originatortimes.com/content/templates/standard.aspx?articleid=2922&zoneid=5

And nobody thinks this is insane I guess . Just good greedy white collar business . Oh but it's all the evil Labor Unions ....

[PocketThunder]

   Here we go again.....  is this place turning into moparts..?..