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Originally Posted by Workshop_Willy
Hmm... Sorry, I still don't see how this is any different from what I said. You seem to be saying that the man got in his car in the morning in order to start the car, and getting to work follows accordingly. I'm saying the man got into his car to go to work. I think we're just arguing semantics. Unless you'd like to expand on your apparent implication about control...  |
This is a bad analogy. Going to work isn't a consequence of starting the car. You can get to work by walking, biking, bussing, hitching a ride. The goal there is getting to work, not the means to the end (starting and driving the car).
Control over oil does more than affect prices. Control over oil gives you power over other nations. Currently, oil is treated as a commodity and is more or less equally available everywhere at a uniform cost... but in the future, when scarcity becomes an issue the game will change dramatically. The ultimate goal is power, and control over a nation's energy largely equates to control over that nation's sovereignty.
If the price of oil was the ultimate goal, there are myriad ways to affect price that are cheaper and more reliable (stockpiling, for example). I'm sure some sectors of the economy would love more expensive oil, just as others would love cheaper oil, but those factors likely matter little in the overall scheme of power and future supply security.
A factor that hasn't been mentioned which is germaine to the price of oil is the fact that most oil traded is priced in USD, and while the price of oil may be going up heavily against the USD, it's much more gentle against other world currencies... there's an average increase of 25% of other currencies vs the USD over the last 2 years (EUR, JPY, CAD etc) and around a 50% in the price of light crude/barrel. The 'increase' in oil prices seen is as much a reflection of the pisspoor performance of the greenback as a genuine slide up the supply/demand curve.