The automobile has ruined the countryside and the cities of America, yet we still pay the cheapest prices in the world for gas. If there was any justice, gasoline would cost $10 a gallon through taxation and the revenue would be used to build public transit systems. I have sympathy for the people who must drive to work because there is no other optiom--they are being taken advantage of by big oil--but I also must admit to a measure of glee at the high gas prices. It's time we factored in some of the external costs of internal combustion.

Jim, that's easy: get Congress to impose a $4-5 tax per gallon, place the proceeds in the Highway Trust Fund, and then get Congress to permit a bigger slice of that trust money to go to public transit. Get a better DOE to do more research into fuel efficient vehicles. Get the states off the public spigot ... they love to get their tax share via formula. Well, you see the problem. Lots of luck with W.

You HAVE to use accounting devices when you are talking about a company's financial picture, because accounting rules are what shapes that picture. You simply can't separate the two.

But as I haven't read the stories regarding so-called profits for the oil companies, I can't get into a detailed discussion. Guess I should go back and have a look.

Ann, I would think a useful measure of a firm's financial health might might be earnings per share ... what investors are paid when they share in the results of the company's success. That measure certainly appears to be uesd a lot in the NY Times business pages and throughout the Wall Street Journal. Would I be off base thinking that is one indicator a potential investor might look at in deciding? If that trend were up, and significantly so, would I be unreasonabe in believeing that says something positive about the company's health? I have suggested that "Info" list the oil companies doing business in the U.S. that have gone out of business in the past two years. He or she seems to be making a case for the higher prices at the pump.

Info: And I bought mine in Scripps Ranch, across from Vons, because the Mobil you went to has already raised its prices!

I have never understood Jim's viewpoint because it would never, ever work on our vast plains. Public transportation works for desensely packed urban areas or in places like Europe where you can get to the next country by afternoon. The USA is HUGE. How do you think you get your food and most every other object you use every day? TRUCKS, and to a much lesser degree, trains do the transporting. It's not just people who move around. All costs are passed on to consumers. We need a new non-polluting energy source and that will come from some entrepreneur or group that will do there thing with less government not more.

L,

I *am definitely not* making a case for the higher prices. I just objected to your snippet of info regarding the 50% increase in profits without disclosing the real ROI (sorry I was using ROR earlier). I hate partial facts. BTW, I do not own any oil stock.

Barb,

The Arco off Scripps Poway Pkway is $1.79 this morning (Friday). Hey! We're almost neighbors!

Well, Info, I'll leave this site now. I'd only hung around to see your list of failed oil companies (I've been looking for a good laugh all day). So, you were not making a case for higher prices? That, Info, is what we have been talking about this entire time, and how the companies manipulated those pump prices skyward to increase their profits (as I depart, please allow me to introduce a new, replacement term for your ROR ... ROM ... return on manipulation). Have a good weekend at the pump.

I understand the inflationary process/I was just using this forum to get prices and I would inflate them accordingly. Thanks to those who gave facts and not theories.