What drives finance people to make money at the expense of livelihoods, happiness, and even lives of others?

i dont think you can put your finger on a specific group of people who can be labeled s "finance people"

Why not?  They act, in effect, as a herd.  They follow the trend-setters buying and selling on the market merely according to the market fluctuations and not any personal interest, values or ethics.  They also cut costs of the companies with the aim of maximizing profits for shareholders and, of course, themselves, always paying mere lip service to the livelihoods and working conditions of the employees and barely if ever take into account the quality of the product or service.  They ALL follow this trend because they are ALL a part of one big blind herd, led ultimately over a cliff.

btw we arent running out of oil yet. we are running out of easily obtained oil.

I wonder how long its going to take for the hike in oil prices to have a follow on effect in the polymer industry, when you consider that all plastics and a large quantity of other materials are made from extracts from oil..... yes we go through a lot in petrol etc, but how much are we using on the other industries? and how long till a humble plastic bag is worth $10???

Oil falling...

Seems like it's been too long since I ignored this...
Since is when oil @113 = oil falling?  Oil is falling because of recession fears and consumers are [finally] changing their habits such as combining trips etc so consumption declined.  Heard yesterday that Saudi Arabia said April oil deliveries were actaully low.  [Conspiracy theory alert] decline to meet falling demand to keep prices up?

Still cheaper than milk though.

As I claimed consumers are trying to sue oil less.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080509/economy.html

"The decline, which pushed imports down to $206.7 billion, was led by a 5.9 percent decrease in America's foreign oil bill. The amount of petroleum fell as the average price for crude oil jumped to an all-time high."

it will go above $250 in the next 4 years...guranteed!!

it's just that oil companies are keeping more in their resevoirs and releasing only little amounts, this is cuz the american oil consumption is going up and has no signs of slowing down..and oil companies are now jus tryina make more profit out of it

Did anyone else hear that if you buy a Chrysler, it will pay for difference in oil prices to ensure that you pay $2.99?

@ Gladiator....

Dude, you cannot just make a statement like:

"it's just that oil companies are keeping more in their resevoirs and releasing only little amounts. . ."

You have to source this, and I will follow it up by saying....you are absolutely wrong.

Oil companies are not in the business of speculation.  They sell oil .... period along with the host nation.
Futures markets set the price, Oil is purchased for X delivery at the price set by the markets.

Im tire of this Oil company blame crap. 
Dudes, Dudettes.... DO NOT pay attention to the media.  Use your head.

See :  "the EVIL OIL Companies"

Civilization being written off by the world's real 'elite' - that is the world's most intelligent humans.  And what are they doing?  They're simply refusing to participate in what is clearly unethical and unsustainable 'development'.  Instead, they're coming together, using new ideas to live their lives independently from the system.