Time to End Big Oil's Greed

COL Gene

Join Date 09/2004

Time to End Big Oil's Greed

Look at their 2006 net profits

The three largest integrated U.S. oil companies posted their 2006 Profits. These are the companies that Bush and the GOP gave $12 Billion of your money for more tax brakes. This is what they reported as their 2006 net earnings:

Exxon Mobile $39.5 Billion - up $3.4 Billion over 2005

Chevron $17.1 Billion – up $3.0 Billion over 2005

Conoco Phillips $15.5 Billion – up $2.0 Billion over 2005

These increases are outlandish and mean that every American paid too much for the gasoline and oil they needed to live. These oil companies did not just pass on the higher crude oil prices to consumers but used the instability in the oil producing areas to inflate their profits. It is time to pass an excess profits tax on oil companies that practice such irresponsible pricing policies to inflate their profits. That excess profits tax should be used to produce alternate energy sources to move our country closer to energy independence from foreign crude oil purchases.

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

No my proposal would not bring a person with 50K equal to a person with a 100K income. I am not talking about salaries in those ranges. I am talking about people making above $500,000 per year for an increased tax bracket.

The employment of that 70% of workers by people making above $500,000 will continue. That is the only way they will be able to keep getting those high salaries.

My income is far beyond $500k and I can tell you that if I weren't being paid as well as I am I would never be willing to sacrifice what I do to do my job.

Your idea is basicaly to kill the goose that lays the golden egg because it's not fair that other geese don't lay golden eggs.

I don't work for the benefit of you, Col or the benefit of society and certainly no tthe benefit of the government. I work for the benefit of my family and myself and by doing so, many other people benefit as well -- including you as you use my website which exists thanks to the work of others who didn't make it for your benefit but for their own benefit.

A tiny handful of people are the ones who generate most of the wealth in our society. A smart government is one that encourages those people to keep doing what they're doing.

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No matter how hard I try, I just can't make sense of Col's idea. Why? Why is it OK to make those who make a lot of money have to pay more than those who make not so much? Why work hard to make money, which is what this country is all about, so that someojne like Col can say that "you make too much, you need to pay more taxes"? But I thought they did. If you make more money than someone else, doesn't that mean you pay more taxes? Besides, if someone is really bothered by these companies making so much money, why not focus on the cause not the effect. Why not focus on the consumer, the one who does not seem to care to pay $3 a gallon to go to the movies, clubbing, to work when there is alternate transportation. Why is it that if someone, legally, finds a way to make a lot of money that somehow they are evil because people are dumb enough to pay high prices for something?

Again, I find it hard to believe that this country is in some kind of economic problem when PS3's, Xbox 360's, Nintendo Wii's, HD TV's, Ford Mustangs, Netflix movies, Blockbuster movies and games, Stardock software, American Airlines tickets, etc, seem to be selling just fine. I work for UPS and shipments have not dropped since Xmas passed. Homeless people making $30 an hour on street intersections, Mexicans continue to pour across the border for, you guessed it, money.

More money? You complain that the Gov't spends too much yet your suggestion is to make more money by taxing some more, in other words put more spending money in the Gov't hands, but forget about the part where we teach them how to spend it. Man, you sure contradict yourself quite often Col.

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You know, I'm a Centrist that leans Republican. I've been told by some that that can not be possible and I asked why. I could not believe the answer I got, because I was poor. Poor? Sure I may struggle to pay my bills and all but I'm not poor. When was the last time you saw a poor person with 2 computers, wireless broadband, satellite on 2 TV's, 3 TV's, 3 DVD players, a full fridge, gas in my tank? Poor to me is accepting that you will never do better, that this is as good as it can get, that no matter what you do nothing will change. Not me, I look towards a better future. Interesting enough, Brad is an inspiration to me. Reading how he was once in my shoes and now look where he is gives me the drive I need to believe that I too can make it if I just keep trying and never give up, and lots of patience of course.

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"When was the last time you saw a poor person with 2 computers, wireless broadband, satellite on 2 TV's, 3 TV's, 3 DVD players, a full fridge, gas in my tank?"

In America it is common. That's because we judge what "poverty" is simply by tagging that word onto a big hunk of the bottom percent of our economy. It's a sliding scale. It's like saying "the idiots" in a room full of geniuses. Sure, there will be 20% that have the lowest IQs, but none of them will really be idiots.

Go to a room full of idiots, and the bottom percent will be a very different deal. I'm sure people in Africa, Central and South America, etc., look at what we call poverty and want to puke. If they had something in their stomachs TO puke, mind you. In America, we can always puke, because our poor are quite often obese.

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