Jeff Wisnia wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Jeff Wisnia wrote:

I don't really know much about how the retail home delivery heating oil
industry works.

But, the recent plummet in crude prices has me wondering what kind of
fun and games are going to take place between fuel oil dealers and their
customers who engaged in fixed price contracts for the coming heating
season back when prices were ascending at an unbelievable rate.

I assume the dealers must have entered into futures purchasing contracts
with their suppliers to protect them against further price increases and
those contracts will have to be honored by the dealers unless they
choose bankrupcy instead.

I can forsee that the dealers are going to have a helluva time getting
all the customers who entered into guaranteed price contracts with them
to cough up what they agreed to pay when the retail market price of
heating oil drops significantly. Particularly so if those customers are
being negatively hit by other aspects of the current crazy economy and
use that as a justification to default on their contracts.

It should be interesting....Educated comments appreciated.


Unless someone or their lawyer can prove some fraud in the contract, I
don't see how customers who signed a legal contract for such a futures
purchase has any recourse to get out of it, nor should they. The erosion
of personal responsibility in this country is completely out of control
and has to stop.

And I think it's only going to get worse during the current economic
crunch. Too many of folks who have been confusing want with need all
their lives and now can't afford to pay for what they've bought, will
make up ridiculous reasons to blame it all on the sellers and lenders so
they can self-justify welching on their obligations.

Yes, but we do need to be sure we deal with the sellers / lenders who's
behavior has ranged from deceptive to fraudulent.


I truly think I was fortunate to have started my career and marriage
during what I have come to regard some of the best years our country has
ever had (the 1950s).

I expect you are correct.


When I look around now and see believable statistics like . . . .

50% of current births in the USA are to unwed mothers

This needs further breakdown since the lump figure is misleading. Only
the teenage portion of this is really a significant issue. There are
many single parents (both sexes) who do just fine.

and, 20% of american
students don't achieve high school diplomas (And at the risk of my being
damned as un PC, that student percentage is even higher if considering
only African American and Hispanics.)

Yes, the demographic are not even. If there is one glimmer of hope, this
latest election may help on that front by lending some credibility to
the teachers trying to tell the disaffected student that they have life
options other than drug dealer or gang member if they study hard.


Couple those kind of statistics with our nearly complete exporting of
factory jobs which would have provided work to non-high school grads, I
think I have good reason to fear for the America my grandkids are
heading into.

Yes, between the failing education system shifting from helping students
find the right career path for them to telling them that they are
garbage if they don't get into a trendy "high tech" field, and the loss
of manufacturing jobs (which is not just due to outsourcing, some parts
of the country have actively tried to get rid of manufacturers in favor
of bio-tech and other trendy stuff), we have made it impossible for a
sizable portion of our population to make a reasonable living.

The fact is that all are not created equal and no amount of education
will make it possible for 100% of the population to hold a high tech
engineering job. We have devalued skilled crucial professions, treating
those who have the skills as some sort of second class citizens, simply
because they aren't trendy. Our politicians ridicule plumbers who expect
to get fair pay for their skills and knowledge.

I don't see any way out of this mess, easy or not, and I am quite
thankful that I do not have any offspring who are going to have to
suffer through this collapsing civilization.