Saturday, August 05, 2006

Facts on Fuel

So I just saw the commercial, and had to check out the web site about "Facts on Fuel." So here the oil companies try to explain how the prices for their products are composed. Digging around will get you interesting tidbits and statistics - and we all know how easy it is to manipulate statistics.

So, some factoids:
  • Gasoline is almost as expensive as it was in 1918.
  • Fuel prices have only increased slightly more than residential rents in the time from 1982 to April 2006.
  • Apparently, a graph showing percentages shows that oil company earnings vs. the rest of U.S. industry is supposed to show if oil company profits are out of line or not.
Yeah - that last one is funny, along with the commercial for the web site: middle-class-looking people complaining about how they will be able to afford to drive their kids to school. Wow. So these power-children are being chauffeured to school, exacerbating their sense of entitlement. How about.... you buy them a bike. And get one for yourselves - you all look overweight to me.

posted by jaydub at 12:18 PM

1 Comments:

Blogger jaydub said...

Sure - now how many people hold oil stocks? Many do in their retirement funds, but do you want to wait another 30 years before realizing the gain on the extra money you paid at the pump all your life? How many cents on the dollar are you getting back, really?

You're also forgetting that most of the oil companies pay out such a small portion of their dividends for class b shares that even if you held a significant amount, you'd get $0.30/share back, per year, but you've gone from paying $2.00/gallon to $3.00/gallon all year long.

11:33 AM  

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