Treaty with Iraq...?Follow

Don't let this be you

Why is it so important that these aren't being funded by "big oil"?

because you stated that MOST of the research into alternative fuels was from big oil. it is in fact NOT from big oil. that is what i have been saying. once it gets to a point it can compete with big oil, they get involved and kill it.

thus my lack of "faith" in the big corps that are out there to do what is right and good instead of kill these great ideas and hide them from the public both with greed and political power.

And yet, linux didn't really catch on until companies appeared and wrote distributions that they could sell "for profit".

you can NOT sell linux for profit. you can sell your services. fact is most embeded hardware is linux based, most backbone hardware of the internet is *nix based, same goes for most servers that are open source based. MS does not hold a candle to Linux and UNIX when it comes to servers and server models. been that way since the very beginning. MS tries to lie and make everyone think that their servers run the world when in fact they do not.

still my point stands with the massive corp called Microsoft Corp based out of Redmond WA big money kills real innovation. why? it is competition. why do you think MS is so scared of Linux? simple it is better then MS in every aspect and when enough "consumers" catch on MS will be in for a world of hurt if they do not change and they can not change fast enough because they do not even understand their own code well enough to do so.

Same thing with alternative fuels. As long as those pushing the agenda refuse to allow companies to make profit off the alternatives, they'll never catch on. And it really has nothing to do with any kind of "evil" cabal controlling things. It's just the way the market works. Kit electric cars will never appeal to a mass market, just as hand compiled linux kernels don't. It's not until someone takes the base idea, spends some serious cash and makes something that can be sold that it'll have large scale appeal.

I don't make up the rules. They just are what they are...

in the past 5 years or so that i have been dealing with linux i have ONLY had to hand compile a kernel 1 time. 1, yup that is it, 1 time. not every time i do something, it just WORKS... it is there and has been there for a long time.

you are right kit cars never will be mass marketable, but guess what car companies are starting to ditch the big oils and produce alternative fuel option cars like the hybrids you have on the market today. that btw in my area you are on a 6 month waiting list for a prius if you want one. why? simple there is a massive demand for it and big oil is scared because if cars start getting 50-100mpg they will sell less oil and will have to jack the prices up to $5/gal. oh and yeah on the radio they are talking $3.50 by summer and $5 by end of 2008 per gal. of gas.

oh wow see what happens...

That's because they're lumping the corporate sales all together. The profit margin at the retail level is incredibly tiny.

no that is because they are a gas company. FYI, IIRC RaceTrack is run and owned by oh yeah that nut case down south called Chavez you might of heard of him. why did he take ownership of that company? simple greed.

Your argument was that when retail outlets raise their prices whenever a new gas increase occurred that was coming with their next shipment, that they were being unfair because they didn't have to pay more for the gas their actually selling. I can tell you as a matter of personal knowledge, that in many cases those cost increases are necessary. The profit margin for gasoline sales are so slim, that any significant increase in the next shipment cost can result in the station actually not being able to afford to buy enough to fill their tanks. It's that much, and the profit margin is that narrow. They'll tend to bump their prices up (often by more then they think the cost will increase) just to make sure they can make enough extra cash with whatever they've got left in their tanks to make up the difference.

It's really that slim of a margin. A gas station that doesn't do this will find it's profits for the whole month eaten up, and potentially never make it up even in the next year of sales. They have to raise their prices. It's not greed.


Quote:
Walmart is NOT stupid when it comes to profit making. they would not sell gas if it would not make them a profit and a good one at that.


Walmart's entire market strategy is to reduce their operating costs as low as possible, so they can offer their goods for a little as possible, and make up the differential in volume. And it works. So yeah, they charge as little as possible for their gas (and they've got some volume benefits there too). I'd still bet that their overall margin on the gas they sell is less then 1%...

no sorry, 1% is not enough profit for walmart or ANY business to stay in the black. just not enough profit in it specifically when you are talking a $3 item that you have to pay roughly $1 in taxes on. so you are telling me that walmart makes $0.01/gal of gas sold... nope no way they would agree to something as stupid as that.

we already had the discussion on how much gas costs from factory to retailer to customer.

In either case, our laws "do the right thing". I just think that choosing examples specifically of drugs where the new patented forms have come out specifically in response to health issues (making the old ones no longer available for sale including in generic form) is an unfair way to look at the issue as a whole.


only unfair if the generic can save lives, make lives better, and cost considerably less... um ok.

again there has to be a better way and one of them might just be preventing those companies from advertising again. no need for "created" problems that "drugs" can fix/cure/make better.

we do not need more drugs we need more real solutions to real problems not created problems to put money in their back pocket.