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For those 3 or 4 people in the country (besides the oil execs) who admire the profits the oil companies are making and applauding them for doing so, I have one comment for you:
It sure must be nice to be so wealthy. Is it all dirty money or clean?
What is your net worth? 3, 5, 10 million? More? Im jealous and I hate you.
Ok so now I have people privately calling me an idiot for complaining about the price of oil. Must be one of those wealthy people I spoke of above. Has to be.
Because life blessed you with more then most us can ever dream of gives you no reason to put down us poor people.
Oil is a product traded on international markets. US corporations are actually small players. Most oil reserves are controlled by state-owned companies outside the US. They sell their oil to you because you pay good money. Stop paying and some other country will buy it. They (Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria...) don't care about you.
China + India = 2.5 billion (2,500 million) humans just like you, with a brain, 2 hands and 2 legs.
Location: The Frenchie Farm, Where We Grow 'em Big!
2,080 posts, read 6,937,269 times
Reputation: 1084
OK! I'll be the stinker in this group....my family is the one who is driving up the prices of gas. Just like the other families or individuals that have invested huge amounts of money into the oil stocks, ie., ExxonMobile, Phillips76, BritishPetrol(BP), few Russian consortiums, and so on, and so on.
Everytime you pump the gas in your tank, you're acknowledging that you're addicted to oil/gas. We bought a huge stock cache in medicine(baby boomers are ailing), Off shore accounts in banking(British and Chinese interests), and oil. I just love it when people go to the grocery store one block away in thier cars just to get milk or eggs.
We haven't learned from the '70s OPEC crisis. And in the '00s we're aching , again, because of gas. Not because of a shortage, but b/c of the price. Haven't we learned?!? We got smart in the '80s. We bought stock in those oil companies. And those Prices!!! Its partially driven by us stockholders demanding the oil companies to make a bigger profit. Yes, they built more oil rigs. Increase the production b/c the US is driving around in tanks. And those oil rigs are not cheap. Who pays for it? That one billion dollar oil rig in the North Sea is paid by you guys! That's what's discussed at the share holder meetings in NYC and HOU.
In short... I would like to thank you for increasing the value of our families portfolio. My mom has retired at the age of 60 last year. She living off the dividends.
I hope this places our dependency on oil into a broader picture!
By the way.... I commute by bus and light rail. My partner owns the Honda Insight. We laugh everytime we pass a gas station!
So, in conclusion. Please increase the value of my inheritance. I want to retire EARLY!!!!!!!
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,329 posts, read 54,373,658 times
Reputation: 40736
Quote:
Originally Posted by BLAZER PROPHET
If there was a drug that was life sustaining (as my daughter takes), does that mean the maker of the drug can charge, literally, whatever they want and it's everybody's tough luck? That there should not be any oversight or means to prevent that company from grossly making unreasonable profits at the sake of others? To think that companies like that (and oil companies apply) should be free to gouge for the highest possible profit no matter how detrimental to society, buisness or individuals, then there's something twisted there.
I don't believe it's a case of "IF", that type of thing already goes on. There are many stories of people being denied treatment by their insurance companies where it's obvious the decison was financial rather than medical. More than half of personal bankruptcies in the US are due to healthcare costs.
I don't believe it's the way it should be, either healthcare wise or with the oil companies, but what are the alternatives?
Personally, I believe that with an industry like oil, IF we had a government that operated efficiently, nationalization might be worth looking into but I don't believe the public will ever let that happen, even though oil is much like defense, vital to national survival and I hear no outcries to privatize defense.
If there was a drug that was life sustaining (as my daughter takes), does that mean the maker of the drug can charge, literally, whatever they want and it's everybody's tough luck? That there should not be any oversight or means to prevent that company from grossly making unreasonable profits at the sake of others? To think that companies like that (and oil companies apply) should be free to gouge for the highest possible profit no matter how detrimental to society, buisness or individuals, then there's something twisted there.
I agree. Also, when subjects concerning the compensation of executives comes up we seem to hear a free market remark or get total silence. Surely there is something twisted about a person making more in two years than the average worker makes in a lifetime!
However, we have people that insist that blowing your nose on wax paper is acceptable because it isn't illegal and G. Wrong does it all the time.
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