Everyone has their own theories, and here goes mine. If the gov't dictates how a company's profits are to be spent, we will be living in a society where I will begin to seek a small island outside the USA, out of the hurricane zone. If the gov't demands that the oil companies spend their profits on refineries, the oil companies will just continue to pass 100% of those costs to the consumer, because they still have to make their profit margin to stay in business. If their profit margin drops, so does their stock price, and their investors pull out of the company, leaving the company high and dry, and eliminating competition for the other companies, which can weather more storm. That leads to monopoly or gov't bail out, neither of which work for society.
Automakers will produce vehicles which can turn a profit and consumers will purchase. In SoWal, I mostly see big vehicles, because that is what people buy. Even so, some small cars, like the Honda Accord, get similar gas mileage to a big Toyota Sequoia. If any of you guys can explain to me why the 2007 Honda Accord, which gets around 19 mpg (city), has more horsepower than a 1990 Porsche 911, I'd like to hear it. My former 1991 Honda Accord had about half the horsepower of the same 2007 model, and the gas mileage was much better on the 1991 model. Stop buying these new high horsepower autos, and they will stop making them, because they cannot turn a profit without sales. With increases in technology, there is no reason why an auto shouldn't get better gas mileage, have more horsepower, and have better fuel economy, as time passes. In addition, there is no reason, other than inflation, that the costs shouldn't decrease with time.
comes to my mind. The American people should not have to put up with this type of highway robbery.
Thank you all for listening.
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