Re: Absolutely Incorrect
Nowhere did I use the worlds "artificially raised". I said prices go up before the weekend when most people need gas the most. If you want to examine this with your supply/demand logic, then you could say that demand is higher right before the weekend than afterwards.
Either way, the reasoning is the same. If I own a gas station, I charge what I can get -- that is simply what supply/demand means. If demand is large enough, I will be able to raise prices on Thursday and Friday and people will still buy my gasoline. If I raise prices and people do not buy, then obviously I will have to lower them because demand was not high enough. This is how the laws of supply & demand work. This is no different than how the power companies raise the price of electricity in the Summer -- they do so because they can.
I do not understand what you mean by using this term "artificially raised" -- please explain what this would entail. The price adjustments we are discussing here are day-to-day and happen at the gas-station level and not at the supplier level. While supply shortages can be "artificial", this would be a result of policy of the large oil companies (such as OPEC cutting production) and not of the local gas stations, and would certainly not cause changes in price on a daily basis, but more on a weekly or monthly basis.
AndyVecsey said:
Nowhere did I use the worlds "artificially raised". I said prices go up before the weekend when most people need gas the most. If you want to examine this with your supply/demand logic, then you could say that demand is higher right before the weekend than afterwards.
Either way, the reasoning is the same. If I own a gas station, I charge what I can get -- that is simply what supply/demand means. If demand is large enough, I will be able to raise prices on Thursday and Friday and people will still buy my gasoline. If I raise prices and people do not buy, then obviously I will have to lower them because demand was not high enough. This is how the laws of supply & demand work. This is no different than how the power companies raise the price of electricity in the Summer -- they do so because they can.
I do not understand what you mean by using this term "artificially raised" -- please explain what this would entail. The price adjustments we are discussing here are day-to-day and happen at the gas-station level and not at the supplier level. While supply shortages can be "artificial", this would be a result of policy of the large oil companies (such as OPEC cutting production) and not of the local gas stations, and would certainly not cause changes in price on a daily basis, but more on a weekly or monthly basis.
