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Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number:
1512
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 08:33 am: |   |
There has been a lot of "boo-hooing" about prices at the pump of late. Let me inject a few rays of fact into the fog of despair.
Exxon-Mobil, for example, is a very huge company with very huge expenditures. Therefore their quoted dollars profits (or losses) are always huge numbers.
What is important to all business, large and small, is profit margin.
For every dollar in sales, Exxon/Mobil makes 9.8 cents. McDonalds and Coca-Cola make 13.8 and 21.2 cents, respectively. Google makes 24.2 cents and Merck, Bank of America, Microsoft and Citigroup all make more than that.
As an industry, oil and gas is less profitable than banks, pharmaceuticals, software companies, tele-communications, insurance and many more. Let's hear it for limiting their profits also!
Do you know who the most outrageous oil profiteer is?????????
The U.S. Government! They have collected $1.34 TRILLION dollars in revenue from local and federal gas taxes since 1977, more than DOUBLE the domestic profits of oil companies during the same period. Off with their heads!
In the 70's, good old Jimmy Carter stripped away most of the price controls that were in place. Ronald Reagan promised (never delivered) to deregulate even further. Does anyone remember the oil bust of the '80's where prices per barrel of oil fell so low that the industry collapsed? I personally lost my business and nearly had a bankrupcy because of it. I saw men who had made six-figure incomes as oil executives in Houston, selling shoes to support their family. A good friend's high school daughter had her prized Mustang repossed in the school parking lot in front of her friends. The point, meddling with prices in a free market society is just plain STUPID!
Bill Nelson
RISEN, ISBN 1-93301616-4
Behler Publications
Hiding Places, Den of Deception |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1255
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 12:52 pm: | |
I won't complain about Exxon-Mobil gouging consumers if you won't whine about the poor little rich girl having her Mustang repossessed. While I would agree that price controls have proven ineffective, I would support a tax levied on those oil companies that fail to reinvest their profits in expanding refinery capacity and/or exploration.
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes.htm |
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2851
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 03:05 pm: | |
Bill, you start out by saying one shouldn't quote figures, but rather profit margin. Then, you go on to state the *revenues* the government has taken in.
????
Oil companies may generate less profit margin (which makes sense, because most of their overhead is a lot higher than such places as Google or McDonald's), but they make up for it in volume...
In my opinion, high gas prices are going to be the only way that alternative means of energy will ever make it into mass usage...
((FID/27))
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Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number:
1513
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 03:29 pm: | |
Fred,
#1 The "Poor little rich girl" was hardly rich at all. Her father was a geologist for Shell Oil. Would you enjoy seeing your high school aged daughter have her prized possession jerked away on the campus. I think not! The man lost his job and the means to support his family because of sluggish oil prices. No one seemed to care then or now, I guess. The dirty rats got what they deserved.
Todd,
I don't disagree on alternate fuels. It's the only thing that makes sense in this world today and, yes, the major's and their clout in congress is the main reason we aren't further along the road on that.
There is no "profit margin" in government, Todd. They operate in deficit numbers in reality but break even in theory. They just get a hell of a lot of your money to build bridges over creeks with $$$ from the oil industry.
My main point is we can't penalize a given company or industry just for being successful or big. Sure, it's a critical industry. So are pharmacuticals and utility companies. This is Capitalism, not Communism. Let's don't divided it up evenly, okay?
Bill Nelson
RISEN, ISBN 1-93301616-4
Behler Publications
Hiding Places, Den of Deception |
Pacwriter
Unity Member
Post Number:
2116
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 03:46 pm: | |
let me throw in my quarter
When the gas prices went $3.79 here traffic on hwy 74 from Charlotte to the beach (Mytrle Beach) dropped to the fewest cars I've ever seen on that road. It was truly amazing. Was it good or bad? I think good - people stayed home or close to home, they went to church, they got out and walked.
The walmart parking lot (super walmart) was so empty you could park near the door.
I believe that high fuel prices cut crime, draw families and communities closer and make folks appreciate what they have.
We are fat from being lazy and eating out too much. Walk more and eat out less - save gas and thereby save money - yours!
the oil companies only make money - even huge profits - if we buy their product.
I've said for years that the reason many churches are dead or dying is because of people going to the beach or mountains on Sunday. When they can't afford to drive, they go to church. Morally out nation would be better off if folks didn't drive so much.
I would not complain if the price per gallon went to $7. bucks. Just imagine how our society would change?
http://www.perrycomer.com
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Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1256
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 08:04 pm: | |
I have absolutely no sympathy for the little princess. My son didn't get a car until he graduated from West Point. As far as I'm concerned, the perfect gift for graduation from high school for males and females alike is a draft notice. The sooner they get aquainted with what it takes to make it in the real world, the better they turn out.
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes.htm |
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2852
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2005 - 03:14 pm: | |
"I believe that high fuel prices cut crime..."
Except that would tend to dispute the notion that poverty (due to having to pay higher prices, more would fall into that realm) increases crime...
"...draw families and communities closer..."
Perhaps communities would be closer, but families who already live far away from one another would suffer for the sheer problem of travel costs prohibiting visits...though families living under the same household would probably be closer, if that is your reference...
"I've said for years that the reason many churches are dead or dying is because of people going to the beach or mountains on Sunday. When they can't afford to drive, they go to church."
Eh, I don't follow that logic...I'd say most churches are dead or dying in these days because for a lot of people, the only thing they're interested in is themselves - how can I make more money and have more things, how can I make myself happy, how can I get what I want...
Because many of the religions currently in decline profess doctrines that run counter to this philosophy (all about others, putting yourself last), people aren't interested...it really has nothing to do with gas prices and mobility.
One will notice that the highest growth churches in this country are ones which tend to teach a "you can get all that you desire" doctrine. Example: the pastor of America's largest church, whose own book pushes such a doctrine. (I noticed that PW panned the book with the following statement: "...although the first chapter claims that "we serve the God that created the universe," the book as a rule suggests the reverse: it’s a treatise on how to get God to serve the demands of self-centered individuals.")
*****
Back to the original post...
"When they can't afford to drive, they go to church."
If people can't afford to drive, how will they get to church (unless they occupy the same neighborhood)? For those churches which hold multiple services throughout the week, I would think the cost would be prohibitive to attendance.
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Diana Hignutt
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
399
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 12, 2005 - 01:58 pm: | |
Let's look again at those numbers that Bill says don't matter.
Exxon-Mobil's 3rd quarter 2005 profits rose 75% from the previous quarter to 9.92 billion dollars--the most a U.S. comapny has ever made in a three month period, most likely the most money any company has ever made in the history of the world in a three month period. A period where we experienced the highest fuel costs in history. An unimportant fact, if ever there was one, eh Bill? Boy, thoe oil companies are the best! |
Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number:
1518
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 12, 2005 - 08:09 pm: | |
I am not an apologist for oil companies. They screw us just like all the other businesses. We (the consumer) actually get hit harder by other industries but gasoline hits us where it hurts the most, in the "I can't live without my car" spot. The numbers are bigger and more impressive so it's easier to hate them. Half the Senators who will go through the sham of the "hearings" on the hill, have taken more money from oil lobbies than anyone else.
Why don't you vent your hatred on the makers of mouth wash? Do you know how much that cost per gallon?
Bill Nelson
RISEN, ISBN 1-93301616-4
Behler Publications
Hiding Places, Den of Deception |
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2859
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 06:22 am: | |
Or all the companies that jacked their prices up, blaming the cost of gasoline, but aren't dropping them back down after it's been lowered (around $1.50/gallon from its peak here)...
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Tom Elkins
Wandering Member
Post Number:
262
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 06:46 am: | |
As of yesterday the gas station a block from my home had reg. unleaded at 2.19.9. Competition cures a lot of things.
te
Tom Elkins
NORTH of TEXAS |
Pacwriter
Unity Member
Post Number:
2125
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 06:47 am: | |
the difference between anger at oil companies and other companies is timing.
Coffee can go up but most increases are in summer when there is less demand.
I do not fault oil companies, I fault government regulators of the commodities market.
http://www.perrycomer.com
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Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2860
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 07:25 am: | |
Ours just dropped below $2 here...
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Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2396
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 09:13 am: | |
my gas is still, as of yesterday, logging in at $2.51 at the cheapest place in the area. We were'nt even in striking range of the hurricanes nor do we get our gas from any of the plants that were affected.
Claudia
MINDSIGHT MODERATOR
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Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2862
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 09:43 am: | |
Sounds like you need to move to a state that has better price-gouging laws...
((FID/31))
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Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2397
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 10:40 am: | |
part of what we in Nevada have to do is to oust all the politicians who decry that the only way for our roads to be in good repair is to have HIGHER than AVERAGE GAS TAXES imposed on our County by those legislators who are in the pockets of the construction companies who make sloppy repairs on the roads that only last a few short seasons, and require more work quicker than normal,... job security, in other words. Cost vs work done and work planed vs cost. Money coming in to the State via high gas taxes and then going out to the Construction Companies and suppliers, but not getting into the hands of the workers, (with the exception of continued work season after season).
Claudia
MINDSIGHT MODERATOR
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