Why Should Oil Companies Profit From Your Need

Yesterday evening during my drive home from work I was listening to Fox News on my XM radio when I heard a sound bite from a woman talking about the price of gas. What she said struck me the wrong way. I didn't write down her quote but she basically said this: I have to use gas to get where I'm going, why should oil companies profit from that? That is a very ignorant statement. Is she saying that she has a basic right to gas? Does she have a basic right to travel? Anyone that is an American and supports the ideas that America was founded on supports free enterprise, capitalism and making money (and yes I know there are more ideas). We are a mixed republic with a capitalist economy. Businesses are in business to make a profit from the things you want as well as the things you need or think you need. Yes oil is needed. The world economy and our life as we know it depends upon oil but oil in the US is found, drilled, transported and refined by private companies. We are not a socialist state where the government runs and operates oil for the good and well being of everyone. Why would you want the government to run businesses? It didn't work for the USSR; it wasn't working for China, which is why that communist state now has a limited capitalist economy. Capitalism works, has worked and will continue to work. The cost of gas in the US is market driven, with many factors driving the cost per gallon and that is the way it should be. So why should oil companies profit from your need to travel, because that is the American way.