Oil rockin' everywhere

The price to oil isnt set by the oil companies I heard. If that's correct, then why isnt everything made/produced/whatever by other companies not set by those very companies? Why isnt everything you can think of buying rising and lowering in price like oil? What makes oil so different and worthy of a rising and lowering kind of pricing? And what's it because of?

Here's another question: If everything could rise and fall because of whatever the case may be by whomever, how would the economy be then?

Like go to a store one day and go "Oh, looks like the price of potatoe chips just rose, but the price of light bulbs lowered." Then go to a store on another day and go "Oh looks like the price of potatoe chips lowered, but the price of light bulbs rose".

^^Would it be better if things went that kind of way for whatever the 'because of' reason is on oil?

reply to post by Mabus


Oil is a commodity. All commoditities rise and fall in price. There is a speculative futures market. People buy contracts on these commodities and can make money just as easily on falling prices as they do with rising prices.

The prices at the store do change everyday. They change to cover the current cost was whatever the product is. Most retail outlets have a person that all they do is keep the price changes current.

At the local farm supply store I see this all the time. When the price of steel goes up, the price of field fence and wire go up. When the price of corn goes up, the price of feed goes up. When the price of a barrell of oil goes up, guess what?

They come back down more slowly. Usually as an effect of competition. They can't continue to raise prices and remain competitive.

Educate yourself.

The commodities market started as a way for farmers to hedge against a bad crop. It's fascinating really and if you spent some time looking for these answers yourself instead of coming here for spoon fed info- nobody could guess anything else about you...and you'd actually have a clue while you listened to some idiot tell you what's really happening.