Don't you mean the cost of NOT of protecting the middle east, to the price of gasoline, the price would go up? ;)
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
> Gasoline is a commodity. Oil companies are allowed to sell their gasoline
> for whatever they want. They can give it away for free. They can sell for
> $10 per gallon. The choice is theres. However, market forces set the price
> of gasoline. It involves the cost of the crude oil, the cost of
> distribution and refining, taxes and what the competitors are doing. >
> Yet, this would have no effects on some of the biggest costs of making
> gasoline like crude oil, the cost of distributing and refining gasoline
> and taxes. Oil companies have a net profit margin of about 10%.
>
> So, as goofy as the market is, it does result in reasonable returns to the
> oil companies and reasonable prices for fuels.
>
> If we added the cost of protecting the middle east to the price of
> gasoline, the price would go up.
>
> Jeff