No it's not! Not for 99.9% of products anyway.

If there was no demand for a ££££££££ watch, then Rolex would go bust. If they put their prices to high, they would also go bust because the market wouldn't value the watch as high as Rolex. The same for Ferrari. And Cartier, although I've never heard of them!

Good lord.

Hang on. I am not demanding petrol at nearly £1.10 a litre. Rather the opposite, in fact. I guess almost every motorist and companies that rely on fuel in order to continue their businesses would like it to be cheaper, too. Hell, about five years ago, we nearly had riots when the price went over 80p a litre!

But we don't get a say in it. I can't march into Morrisons or Shell and say "I'm only paying what I think this fuel is worth to me." I'd be arrested for theft.

Likewise for gas, electricity and water prices. The market in these cases is dictated to by the supplier, not the other way round.

Actually, in the case of petrol, the price is defined by the exchequer much more than by the suppliers. BP & Esso make a few pence on that £1.10 litre of petrol, the government makes about 80p. If UKG just charged VAT on petrol, it'd be about 30p a litre. And all the oil speculators in the world would only raise that by 10p at worst.

Jon

I think my point still stands. The "market", ie you and me, isn't driving the increases. Rather we're on the coat tails, hanging on, moaning about it, but ultimately helpless in the face of greed and wicked taxation.

Somebody needs to go to a library and borrow a book about economics...

I think people should read about my point concerning petrol. The only recession in which its price has risen and this has been attributed, in part, to lots of investor dealings, not solely supply and demand.

The same happened when oil hit $100 some time back, it wasn't demand at that time it was some investor wanting to be the first to buy it at that price.

Plus let us not forget the oil tankers sitting of the coast waiting for the price to rise before they are ordered to offload the cargo.
If that isn't blatant price fixing then I don't know what is.

You could get a more fuel efficient car, or use your car less.

Or get an LPG car or conversion then, and pay half the price.

Or get a diesel car and buy green diesel - I've seen it advertised at 70p/L.

Not possible for a lot of people with company cars or tight budgets

LPG conversion = a few grand to do, only works on certain cars (large ones), get half the fuel economy so pay about the same

Diesel = price premium, not all cars can use pure biodiesel + reduced economy again (and potential issues with tax/duty on it) and where is it 70p? All places locally were about 10-15ppl less as it's more profit for them

You don't get half the fuel economy from LPG - what makes you think you do? Sure, you do use more fuel. But not enough to mean you don't save cash.

Price premium on diesel? At the moment, diesel is 108.9 locally whilst petrol is 106.9. When you consider that diesel engines do more MPG, diesel works out cheaper.

Biodiesel - I can't find the company offering 70p, but here is one offering 80p/L. Still a 30p/L saving.

You also need to consider that diesel cars have higher initial and servicing costs, and use these with a certain length of ownership rather than looking at fuel unit costs.

Seriously people, at least basic knowledge of economics would be nice, especially if you decide to debate something you don't understand. Prices are not set the same way as they buy chickens on the market in Istanbul. You say 8 and I say 5 and after half an hour we agree on 6.5

If petrol is too expensive you will buy less of it. And don't tell me you can't drive less cause I will laugh. You will take a bus, or a train, or instead of driving down to a cinema you will walk to your local pub. Same goes for everything, and yes, you can even use less of electricity should you want to.

There's no need to resort to trying to patronise people when all you are making clear is that your understanding of some aspects of economics is, indeed, basic.

Really? I have a degree in economics. Do you?