I simply pointed out that you made it in a way that seems to indicate a fundamental misapprehension of basic economics. Again, "the market" for energy is not "oil companies."
The market are those buying oil (in this case). When someone like jfruser talks about "the market" solving a problem, they mean that buyers will reward those who offer better value, better efficiency, etc. It is not Exxon that we look to, to provide alternative energy or lower prices. Rather, it is a market place that rewards Exxon or anyone else who gives us more go for our dough.
You also seem confused about how sellers decide to price their goods. High prices don't always indicate high profits.
Any 'misapprehension of basic economics' is entirely yours. There is no so-called 'free market'. It is a myth. 'Markets' are a creation of government, as are corporations, and both are accountable to the same (IOW, 'We the People'). The reason that we have record oil & gas prices, along with record oil company profits, is because government (which is supposed to represent 'We the People') has been sold to multinational corporations-the modern versions of the robber barons of the Industrial Revolution. You've heard of the Industrial Revolution? That time between 1880 and The Great Depression? 7 day workweeks, sweatshops, child labor, dangerous work conditions, etc. No middle class, only poor and the very wealthy.
All that changed as a result of the Great Depression (the inevitable result of a corporate dominated society) and the policies of FDR, who singlehandedly recreated the most prosperous middle class in history. Until RR came along and began to dismantle it once again with his voodoo economics. 'Give bidness big tax breaks and get the gubmint off their backs' he said. 'Bidness will invest that new found money and everyone will prosper as a result of the new jobs and economic boom tax cuts will create'.
But that didn't happen, did it? Instead 'bidness' put the money in their pockets and looked for even more ways to increase profits. They took that 'prosperity' overseas where they could benefit once again from sweatshop labor conditions.
American worker's productivity increases every year while wages decline. The rich get richer as the middle class disappears. We've gone from the world's largest creditor nation in the 1970's to the world's largest debtor nation today. We borrow trillions of dollars from the Chinese, Arabs, Japanese to give to private 'corporations' for phony 'wars'. We manufacture nearly nothing in this country. We buy cheap plastic crap from China as fast as we can get it here. And it goes on and on.
Wake up. This government doesn't represent your/our interests, and hasn't since the 1980's. And if you think the election of McCain or Obama is gonna change anything you're in for a helluva long wait as our standard of living continues to deteriorate. But, as long as you've got the bread and circuses, sportsteams and Walmart, everything is A-OK, right? Sheesh.
