Price-gouging charge was a very low blow

Tony Moschetti (letter, Sept. 23) asks why a few price gougers come out in times of crisis. I would ask a different question: Why, when we are all busy uniting against terrorism, must a few whiners complain that gasoline prices are too high?

Normally I am against coercion, but perhaps the time has come for mandatory economics classes for the masses. Maybe then we wouldn't have people complaining that prices shouldn't increase when demand increases or supply decreases. Maybe then people would appreciate the fact that higher gas prices keep a few people from running out and pumping all they can in a state of panic, saving fuel for the rest of us. Maybe then we would recognize that the private act of "gouging" serves the public end of conservation.

We have been exposed to many macabre sights and sounds over the past few weeks. Statements equating our nation's gasoline sellers with the real terrorists are among the worst.

Jack Bladel
Greensboro

News & Record
September 28, 2001

Gas price increases are unconscionable

Why is it that in times of crisis when most Americans unite against a common enemy, a few profiteers show their fangs? Among the usual suspects are the oil profiteers. We have seen huge increases in gas prices overnight. Why? In almost every case that product has been paid for. It is current stock. How can that price change?

Once the tanks are filled and the bill paid I doubt whether a request for additional payment is sent. If the dealer paid $1 per gallon and charged $1.10 per gallon, why all of a sudden with no new delivery does he begin to charge $1.20 per gallon? He is still selling the same product for which he paid $1.

The dealers, whom most of us trust, tell us that they are told what price to charge by those from whom they buy the gasoline. If this is not gouging, what is it, and who is responsible?

Don't tell me about probable cuts in production, or rises in the price of crude oil. Those products will not arrive as refined gasoline for 90 days or more. We will understand a price increase at that time. But will someone in the oil distribution or wholesaling business please explain to us why you are again profiteering during a time of crisis? And what kind of people are you to do such a dastardly thing?

Tony Moschetti
High Point

News & Record
September 23, 2001

Election holiday isn't union plot

Regarding the proposed Election Day holiday, Tony Moschetti wrote (letter, Aug. 17), "This is just a ploy to give the unions, who already have a holiday on Election Day, even more time to round up folks, take them to the polls and direct them to vote for Democrats even if they know nothing about the person for whom they are 'voting.' "

Being a registered Republican and union worker whose wife is also a registered Republican and union worker, I would like to know where these so-called Election Day facts came from. Our neighbor is also a union worker and between the three of us we are members of three of the largest unions in the country. None of us gets the day off for elections.

Is this just another right-wing zealot who thinks he can throw the words "union" and "liberal" together and it is automatically the truth?

Because North Carolina is one of the least-unionized states in the country and, nationwide, there are only about 16 million union members in a country of about 200 million voters, the writer seems mighty nervous. Why?

Is it because he knows the extremists in the Republican Party are pushing us moderates away and we could eventually pull a Jim Jeffords and abandon him and his party?

Oh, and I expect there were a few people who voted for Republicans even if they knew nothing about the person for whom they were "voting."

Doug Ross
Burlington

News & Record
September 7, 2001