• June@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The shitty thing is that as it puts the pressure on big oil, prices will rise and hurt poor people the hardest. We’re already being squeezed by the cost of gas, and when demand gets low the price will continue to go up until poor people are forced to choose between gas and food or an EV and food.

      • June@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        That’s what you’d think. But they’re capitalists and will squeeze every penny they can to their dying breath.

        Supply and demand is largely a myth, especially in markets like oil where it’s practically a monopoly.

        • Nefrayu@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Is not a monopoly though, yes there are cartels but it’s not a monopoly. The less demand there is for oil the less power OPEC has to manipulate prices. They will be left scrambling to supply the remaining demand. Supply and demand isn’t a myth, OPEC simply manipulate supply to influence the price.

          • June@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            The fact that they can just manipulate supply I what makes supply and demand a farce with oil. Demand doesn’t change the price, only supply.

            Oil and gas could still be cheap today, there’s no shortage of oil at all, so they create the conditions necessary to benefit them. They’ll do exactly the same thing as demand for oil peters out, but they’ll wring the neck of that goose tighter and tighter until it finally dies. And it’s the people who can’t afford a new car that will suffer the worst when that happens.

            • Nefrayu@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Demand does change the price. You can see the price drop during economic downturns. Supply and demand are two sides of a single equation. It simply doesn’t make sense to say that only one impacts prices.

              Prices had been dropping recently despite KSA reducing supply, until the attacks in Israel that is.

      • GeekyNerdyNerd@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Same reason why oil prices keep going up even as demand drops, the price of oil is largely determined by OPEC+ and they will cut production until prices rise to where they want them, and the more they have to cut production the higher the prices have to be to offset their fixed costs. More oil = more total revenue = lower price floor for profits.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Lack of demand does not raise prices on fuel - quite the opposite.