I'm no whore

[Hobbit]

Ok, nobody's said it yet, so here I come. In case none of you have heard (it's old news by now, so no link), some of the fatcats in Washington have decided that it's finally time to address the issue of rediculous gas prices. Some have blamed the oil companies and suggested a windfall profits tax, a stupid idea, especially considering that the government makes 5x the gas company per gallon.

Then comes the Republican idea, and that's to give every American taxpayer a check for $100 to help alleviate these high gas prices. So, our staunch, majority allies in the Republican party sat down the other day and thought, "Ok, how much money do you think it will take to just buy off the American people so they'll leave us alone and still vote for us." Apparently, that number is $100. Let me just repeat that again, Congress is suggesting that the government bribe you into not kicking up a stink about the price of gas, and the cost of that bribe is a mere $100. Now, I don't know about the rest of you folks here at USMB, but $100 is not enough for me to whore my support out to politicians who have continually failed to do anything but pander to the nutjob environmentalists that got us into this mess in the first place, and I'm insulted that the politicians think it is.

 

[Johnney]

woudl that be a week or month? a one timer isnt going to cut it.

 

[Mr. P]

Ok, nobody's said it yet, so here I come. In case none of you have heard (it's old news by now, so no link), some of the fatcats in Washington have decided that it's finally time to address the issue of rediculous gas prices. Some have blamed the oil companies and suggested a windfall profits tax, a stupid idea, especially considering that the government makes 5x the gas company per gallon.

Then comes the Republican idea, and that's to give every American taxpayer a check for $100 to help alleviate these high gas prices. So, our staunch, majority allies in the Republican party sat down the other day and thought, "Ok, how much money do you think it will take to just buy off the American people so they'll leave us alone and still vote for us." Apparently, that number is $100. Let me just repeat that again, Congress is suggesting that the government bribe you into not kicking up a stink about the price of gas, and the cost of that bribe is a mere $100. Now, I don't know about the rest of you folks here at USMB, but $100 is not enough for me to whore my support out to politicians who have continually failed to do anything but pander to the nutjob environmentalists that got us into this mess in the first place, and I'm insulted that the politicians think it is.

Ya know the bigger insult is this $$ comes from us to start with.
Yeah, they ALL think we are ALL idiots.

 

[theHawk]

I don't need a $100 check, cut $1000 out of my income taxes each year then I would be bought off.

 

[CrimsonWhite]

So the government wants to bribe me with my own money?

 

[5stringJeff]

Not only is this idea demeaning to me as an American, it's also terrible economics. If gas companies know that Americans have more disposable income, they'll just raise prices accordingly. Besides, what will it buy us? Two tanks? I might get three tanks, since I've got a smaller car. But for those filling a pickup-truck with two tanks, that's not even one trip to the gas station!

Idiotic. They'd be better off using that money for alternative energy research.

 

[jillian]

The bigger issue is price gouging, no? Exxon/Mobil just posted the highest quarterly profits of any publicly owned company in history and just overtook Wal-Mart as number one in the Fortune 500.

That not trouble any of you?

 

[Mr. P]

The bigger issue is price gouging, no? Exxon/Mobil just posted the highest quarterly profits of any publicly owned company in history and just overtook Wal-Mart as number one in the Fortune 500.

That not trouble any of you?

Gouging? I hear that all the time. I need to see figures, real figures, credible figures, that show what it costs for these companies to bring gas to the pump. I haven't seen any, yet. So I can't climb on that bandwagon.

 

[jillian]

Gouging? I hear that all the time. I need to see figures, real figures, credible figures, that show what it costs for these companies to bring gas to the pump. I haven't seen any, yet. So I can't climb on that bandwagon.

The cost of bringing gas to the pump is alaready taken off the top before "profits" are figured. Otherwise they wouldn't be "profits", but would be "income".

I forget that, too, sometimes

 

[Mr. P]

The cost of bringing gas to the pump is alaready taken off the top before "profits" are figured. Otherwise they wouldn't be "profits", but would be "income".

I forget that, too, sometimes

Not if these numbers are "gross" profits.

 

[5stringJeff]

The bigger issue is price gouging, no? Exxon/Mobil just posted the highest quarterly profits of any publicly owned company in history and just overtook Wal-Mart as number one in the Fortune 500.

That not trouble any of you?

Read Hobbit's excellent thread about profit margin vs. profits. See especially posts #1,3, and 5. if the oil companies were price gouging, one would expect their profit margins to be much higher.

 

[nukeman]

I recently looked up the cost of a "smart car" from Europe. They run about 6,000 Euro and have a mpg of 60 city, 80 highway. Now these can be very small cars. But, heres the kicker, these same cars made to work in the US cost 25,000. WHY IS THAT I WONDER.

Maybe it's going to take grossly high gas prices for the auto makers to finally start making hybrid or fuel efficient cars that are affordable and large enough for the larger American family. I for one would be happy to buy one if I could afford to spend that much on an economy sized car.

I now drive a Daewoo that gets 33 mpg if I could double this I'd save myself even more money.

 

[jillian]

Read Hobbit's excellent thread about profit margin vs. profits. See especially posts #1,3, and 5. if the oil companies were price gouging, one would expect their profit margins to be much higher.

Any article that starts by calling Arlen Spector a RINO isn't really going to keep my attention. Sorry. I have kind of a soft spot for him, even though he got beat up by the uber-extremists.

More than that, I don't believe for a second that Exxxon/Mobil's profit margin is at an all -time low. (Maybe if I saw some credible links). And if it is, how much of that is due to the absolutely insane level of compensation being paid to top execs.

In other words, I'm not gonna cry for the oil companies. Gas is $3.40 a gallon for premium in my neighborhood.

 

[5stringJeff]

Any article that starts by calling Arlen Spector a RINO isn't really going to keep my attention. Sorry. I have kind of a soft spot for him, even though he got beat up by the uber-extremists.

More than that, I don't believe for a second that Exxxon/Mobil's profit margin is at an all -time low. (Maybe if I saw some credible links). And if it is, how much of that is due to the absolutely insane level of compensation being paid to top execs.

In other words, I'm not gonna cry for the oil companies. Gas is $3.40 a gallon for premium in my neighborhood.

I'm not trying to start a pity party. I am saying that price gouging is an easy term to throw around, but doesn't stand up to the statistics of low profit margins.

As to the high pay for executives: executives run huge companies. It's a huge job. Frankly, if the shareholders/board of directors think the CEO deserves $10 million a year, he probably deserves it.

 

[Gem]

The US government has examined the oil companies for price gouging before...everytime the price gets too high people start screeching about price gouging. So the government spends the time and money investigating and, to date, find absolutely no proof of any gouging...

If they can ever demonstrate it conclusively, then most Americans will support nailing the oil companies to the wall...until then, we have to deal with the fact that we want more oil then ever before, other nations' demands for oil have absolutely exploded, we haven't built any refineries since the 70's so we continue to have to pay and pay again for oil in the forms we need, we have ridiculous taxes and laws regarding which gas can be used in which cities, we do not look into alternatives from hybrid cars to nuclear power seriously and we refuse to look for alternative locations for oil....to be as blunt as possible, people who are surprised at the high gas prices and want to simply blame Exxon and the ilk are dumb.

 

[jillian]

I'm not trying to start a pity party. I am saying that price gouging is an easy term to throw around, but doesn't stand up to the statistics of low profit margins.

As to the high pay for executives: executives run huge companies. It's a huge job. Frankly, if the shareholders/board of directors think the CEO deserves $10 million a year, he probably deserves it.

I don't have a problem with people being highly compensated, per se. We all try to maximize our earnings. My problem is that they're opportunists.

I also heard something recently that made me think. It used to be that CEO's earned approximately 40 times what the average worker did. I thim that's fine. They now earn hundreds of times what the average worker does (and please don't ask me for a link...I'm just repeating what I heard). As a result, there's no money left for benefits, for health coverage, for pension plans. This I have a problem with...same as I had a problem with the Enron folks freezing their workers' stock in the company while they were selling off their own.

 

[Gem]

jillian wrote:

They now earn hundreds of times what the average worker does (and please don't ask me for a link...I'm just repeating what I heard).

I heard this as well....I'm blanking on where though too! ooh, I hate when that happens...dammit jillian! now I'll be trying to figure this out all night!

 

[CrimsonWhite]

I don't have a problem with people being highly compensated, per se. We all try to maximize our earnings. My problem is that they're opportunists.

I also heard something recently that made me think. It used to be that CEO's earned approximately 40 times what the average worker did. I thim that's fine. They now earn hundreds of times what the average worker does (and please don't ask me for a link...I'm just repeating what I heard). As a result, there's no money left for benefits, for health coverage, for pension plans. This I have a problem with...same as I had a problem with the Enron folks freezing their workers' stock in the company while they were selling off their own.

Per se. Another way of saying "I'm wrong, but I don't want to admit it." lol Anyone who takes the oppurtunity to maximise their earnings are therefore oppurtunists.

 

[Annie]

Ok, nobody's said it yet, so here I come. In case none of you have heard (it's old news by now, so no link), some of the fatcats in Washington have decided that it's finally time to address the issue of rediculous gas prices. Some have blamed the oil companies and suggested a windfall profits tax, a stupid idea, especially considering that the government makes 5x the gas company per gallon.

Then comes the Republican idea, and that's to give every American taxpayer a check for $100 to help alleviate these high gas prices. So, our staunch, majority allies in the Republican party sat down the other day and thought, "Ok, how much money do you think it will take to just buy off the American people so they'll leave us alone and still vote for us." Apparently, that number is $100. Let me just repeat that again, Congress is suggesting that the government bribe you into not kicking up a stink about the price of gas, and the cost of that bribe is a mere $100. Now, I don't know about the rest of you folks here at USMB, but $100 is not enough for me to whore my support out to politicians who have continually failed to do anything but pander to the nutjob environmentalists that got us into this mess in the first place, and I'm insulted that the politicians think it is.

I got linkies, Both of these are nonsense. If the feds and states would cut the gas taxes already imposed, the public would get the break. Instead they want to collect more taxes. Who's catching the windfall?

$100 for 'they think we're idiots':

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/27/gas.rebate/


windfall tax ideas:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0428/p01s03-usec.htm

 

[Avatar4321]

The bigger issue is price gouging, no? Exxon/Mobil just posted the highest quarterly profits of any publicly owned company in history and just overtook Wal-Mart as number one in the Fortune 500.

That not trouble any of you?

The only price gouging of oil comes from the Federal and State governments. You can't claim that a company is gouging the people buy making $.09 per gallon the the government is not when it makes $.60-$.80 per gallonw.