Community Forums

Billieg · 05-12-2011, 01:41 PM

One of the most posted threads on this site and many other sites is the cost of fuel. The cost of fuel makes everything go up in price so less people buy which causes more and more businesses to fail and unemployment to rise. As Americans we can do something about it and that is to buy as much American products as we can to help our economy. If we just buy 10% more American products over the overseas products we can generate million's of jobs here in the USA and keep our money here growing new jobs. Most of us are older and we worry not only about ourselves but our children and grand children. So stand up and do something about it today.

Here is a site that can help us do this. It has many different categories from food to gas that are made in America. Buy your gas from American stations and everything else you can from American companies. Maybe us "old folks" can still make a difference.

How Americans Can Buy American

wnytaxman · 05-12-2011, 02:05 PM

Billieg, I applaud your efforts but as soon as I hit the gasoline write-up I can see there are some inaccuracies. It states that BP gas comes from the UK. BP is headquartered in the UK, but the fuel you buy here in the US is pulled from North American wells and refined here. If there is any doubt, remember an incident in the Gulf of Mexico about a year ago. Also, most of Arco's oil comes from the North Slope of Alaska and Arco is owned by BP.

One of the problems with a list like this is that when inaccuracies occur most of us would never know.

Billieg · 05-12-2011, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wnytaxman

Billieg, I applaud your efforts but as soon as I hit the gasoline write-up I can see there are some inaccuracies. It states that BP gas comes from the UK. BP is headquartered in the UK, but the fuel you buy here in the US is pulled from North American wells and refined here. If there is any doubt, remember an incident in the Gulf of Mexico about a year ago. Also, most of Arco's oil comes from the North Slope of Alaska and Arco is owned by BP.

One of the problems with a list like this is that when inaccuracies occur most of us would never know.

I guess nothing is 100%. The profit from BP goes to the UK so I guess that's why it's on there. Murphy is 100% USA along with most others on the USA list. The bottomline is we need to do something before it's too late. Thanks for your response.

denochs · 05-12-2011, 05:34 PM

Another problem has to do with the way we have been trained to shop, "cheapest price"

And American made products are not always the cheapest. Add to that, those of us "older people" are on fixed incomes that have been eroded due to the higher cost of living. There we go, using that "cost" word again. Can't get away from it.

I think the best thing we could do is to buy only what we need over a designated period of time to send a message to these price gouging oil companies and others. If the buying public demonstrated they could do without they may think about the consequences of arbritrary price increases. Look what a 2% decrease in fuel consumption has accomplished already. Oil prices have dropped 10+%. If the speculators are correct, fuel should come down too.

Dave

sfrantz · 05-12-2011, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billieg

The profit from BP goes to the UK.

The profit goes to the stockholders. 38% of BP stockholders are in the USA.
44% goes to the UK. The rest is spread elsewhere.

Things are very complicated in the global economy.

Ownership statistics | Share information | BP

Ray,IN · 05-12-2011, 05:53 PM

I agree Billieg! Buy American_when possible. Just last week someone said they could not find an American flag made in the U.S. All they had to do was run an internet search. Mine revealed about 3 pages of results.

Billieg · 05-12-2011, 10:10 PM

The large gas companies testified today in front of congress that if their tax credits were taken away gas prices would go up. Exon made 11 BILLION in PROFIT this first quarter! That's PROFIT after every bill was paid! They still want us to "help" them with our tax dollars? I think we have found the new terrorists.... It's time to send a message to these people. Our grandfathers, fathers, uncles and many of us have fought for this country. Let's not back down now.... So maybe if we stop buying Exon/Mobile and overseas gas and buy USA owned smaller company gas: Murphy, Standard, Kerr-McGee,Marathon, Phillips 66,Sinclair,Sonoco,Spur,Sunoco,Tenneco,Texaco,Ultr amar and Union 76
gas they will get the picture. I'm not trying to make this political but trying to say buy American first even if it's a few cents more. It's our future.... and our kids future and our grand kids future..... Why let them down?

Billieg · 05-12-2011, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfrantz

The profit goes to the stockholders. 38% of BP stockholders are in the USA.
44% goes to the UK. The rest is spread elsewhere.

Things are very complicated in the global economy.

Ownership statistics | Share information | BP

I understand that but let the 38% of Americans that have shares in BP sell their BP shares and buy shares in Murphy or another USA company where 100% of the money will stay here. If BP starts failing because we don't buy their gas I'm sure the BP stock holders will sell and the stations selling BP gas will switch too. We as a RV community probably buy the second most amount of fuel in the USA. We really have to wake up to this nightmare that's turning us into a third world country. I know most of us are "over the hill" but we aren't under it yet! My tank is 80 gal. so if Murphy is 3 cents higher than BP that means I spent $2.40 more to fill up and I help Americans. America is worth it.

Discovery · 05-12-2011, 10:43 PM

Excellent post. I own BP stock, but don't buy their gas. I buy Chevron here in CA which I believe is the same as Texaco. Being self employed, I do try to buy American made products and hope people reading this thread will try harder to keep our $$ in the US.
If only the government could do the same.

Wayne MD · 05-12-2011, 10:43 PM

Doesn't anyone feel sorry for the outrageous profits the oil companies are making?
375 Million/per day? Those CEO's work hard raping America to its core. They are still laughing at Congress today for the remarks Congress made against them. There is no stopping them.

**NLOVNIT** · 05-12-2011, 10:45 PM

I do hang out on Yahoo Finance from time to time. I'm not siding with the oil companies, but it was interesting to read, even though a company like Exxon makes billions in profit, their net margin is a pittance comparted to other industries. See the following table (scroll WAY down to the listing for Major Integrated Oil & Gas, which companies like Exxon are categorized)

Yahoo Net Profit Margin Table

Lori-

W4RLR · 05-12-2011, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

I agree Billieg! Buy American_when possible. Just last week someone said they could not find an American flag made in the U.S. All they had to do was run an internet search. Mine revealed about 3 pages of results.

I think they meant they could not find an American flag made in the U.S. in stock at WALMART.

wnytaxman · 05-13-2011, 06:22 AM

It's always ironic to me when everyone blames the oil companies for the price of gas. They do not set the price as the speculators do not set the price. Exxon, Shell, BP, Chevron, and all the major oil companies actually have a very low profit margin compared to Wal Mart, Home Depot, and many of the other big box retailers.

Let's try this little example on the profits and see if this doesn't help explain the bottom line of the oil companies. You have an iventory of goods that you paid $1 for. You normally sell that inventory for $1.25. Suddenly the retail price of that inventory goes up to $5. Don't you think that will have an impact on the bottom line of the business? It doesn't cost any of the oil companies any more to pull $30 a barrel oil than it does $100 a barrel oil. That is their inventory.

What has the biggest impact on the price of oil is exactly what the OP stated. We overload this country with foreign goods. We've tanked the US dollar which is the unit of currency that oil is traded in. As our dollar goes down, our oil prices will go up and it has been that way for years.

Ed-Sommers · 05-13-2011, 08:27 AM

I have no problem with buying American made stuff to the point of "Union Made", then I go foreign.

By the way, there is no such thing as an "American Flag" as that could be Canadian or Mexican as well a the USA. The correct term, for those that care, is the Flag of the United States of America.

Ed