Gee, That Makes Me Feel A Whole Lot Better About Paying $3 a Gallon
Posted by: Emperor Misha I in Useless Swine4:52 pm
Fat pig Lee R. Raymond of Exxon walks off with $170 million in retirement bennies.
It’s good to know that somebody at least are getting to enjoy the benefits of gouging gas prices because, heaven knows, $170 million isn’t hardly anything when you have to pay for all and sundry and it’s not like he hasn’t put in the years of hard work for it. G-d only knows how many falafels the poor man has had to share with oil ticks over the years.
Thankfully, Exxon won’t be going bankrupt because of this golden parachute, considering how they made about $36 billion last year profiteering off of the fact that we’re at war, so it’s not like they can’t afford it.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to pump another 40 bucks into the tank to pay for the war effort and Raymond’s retirement account.
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Three different people said the exact same thing to me today! Must be folks are paying attention, as well as, through the nose.
April 17th, 2006 at 5:16 pmWell, it’s not quite yet three bucks a gallon here in KC - I paid $2.59/gallon earlier today at my local Quik Trip - but I figured that I’d better top off my tank now before the price went up again. Every time I wait until I get below a quarter of a tank, the prices go up right before I get to the station to fill up.
So I bought about half a tank of gas…maybe eight gallons…for $20.50.
So much for fighting a war for cheap oil. And thank God I didn’t buy a 4X4, last time I traded cars…
April 17th, 2006 at 5:26 pmYou can also thank your local environmentalist loon for the high prices too.
If we drilled for our own oil (and built more refineries), the prices would not be as high.
Thank your noodle-spined “representatives” too.
April 17th, 2006 at 5:28 pmWhile for my company I can appreciate the high price of oil, I still have to fill my P/U. Yesterday for 1/2 tank (15 gal.) $46.45 @ $2.999/gal. I gave the lady at the register a bad time about not having the nerve to put that “3″ up there and be honest about the price.
I was just teasing her (we know each other), but she said she dreaded when they will have to make it $3.00+. When it crossed $2.50 she said people would say the rudest things to her, like she could control it.
April 17th, 2006 at 5:40 pmM’Liege, may I encourage you to consider the whole story when considering the 2005 profits of ExxonMobil?
Yes, they made $36 billion last year in profit. They made it on nearly $360 billion in sales/operating revenue, which you can find here should you care to look it up (it’s on page 4, Acrobat Reader required).
That said - no, I’m not fond of the $400 million retirement package myself. (NOTE: That’s what Drudge reported it as at the time.) But if that’s what they want to pay him, I imagine they have their reasons - and if the shareholders see fit to revolt, then they see fit to revolt.
But it’s not ExxonMobil’s fault that we’re nearly up to $3.00/gallon. They don’t set the price - they just pay it.
April 17th, 2006 at 5:52 pmLord Spatula
April 17th, 2006 at 6:01 pmYou are braver than I. Defending the profits of the oil companies is a subject I have abandoned long ago. From the Right, they’re jealous of how to make that much money and from the Left, they’re just idiots. It’s a no win situation and arguing doesn’t change “the peoples right to cheap gas”. That big oils return on investment is middle of the road will never register while someone is watching those numbers spin on the gas pump.
The point is, SoCal, that they only made $.10 on the dollar. That’s not an excessive profit margin by any stretch of the imagination. People are reading (and rioting over) what the LSM is reporting without getting the whole story. I thought we knew better by now, is all. (shrug)
April 17th, 2006 at 6:15 pmHmm, wouldn’t you think a company would look to get in good with the public by lowering prices, taking less profit, and thus forcing other companies to lower their profit margins? That’s kinda the way that free-market’s supposed to work, at least from what I learned at the Imperial
April 17th, 2006 at 6:16 pmLunch-Money BeatdownEconomics School.I reckon the stock holders figured he was worth it. I never hold it against a person or a company for making money–that is what business and working is all about. But I sure do feel like I am being hi jacked at the gas pump–until I remember what a Pepsi cost when gasoline was two bits a gallon. Ain’t it great that gasoline has not inflated at the rate of soft drinks, a cup of coffee, and a candy bar?
April 17th, 2006 at 6:17 pmSire, no offense, but on this one I’m with my lord Spats - if only because I don’t relish paying my way to Texas to be beaten up.
I demand every penny I can get for my services. If you could get $400 million, wouldn’t you take it? If that’s “too much,” then how much less would be “fair?” And who decides? The government, by fiat?
Michael Jordan can command one jillion dollars for use of his name, because the user increases revenues by two jillion for using it.
There is no such thing as a “good” price or a “bad” price, a “right” price or a “wrong” price. “Price” is just information.
April 17th, 2006 at 6:20 pmOh, hush.
April 17th, 2006 at 6:30 pmI haven’t bought gas from Exxon for years. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t bought a heck of a lot of gas.
I figure the guy made money for his stockholders. That is what he is supposed to do. The joys of capitalism bring great wealth to those who are able to provide a product in great amounts at a fair price.
Considering how much fuel exxon has sold over the last 20 years or so, I imagine his retirement cost is about .0000001 cents per gallon. I can handle that.
April 17th, 2006 at 6:46 pmListen, I’m not revolting against the principle of making a buck, I much admire that, I’m just saying that gas prices skyrocket because of a war and, lo and behold, oil companies are making a killing.
The rest of us are asked to do our bit for the war effort and I have no problem doing just that, it’s more than worth it, I’m just saying that somebody seems to be doing a bit more than others, m’kay?
You can twist and turn and spin the profit margin on a gallon of gas all you want, but the fact remains that Exxon made a record profit of $36 billion at a time when gas prices are threatening to strangle our economy and, as a result, our ability to wage war.
“But they’re only making 10% profits and that’s not all that much!”
True. It isn’t outrageous either, but the fact remains that they’re making a fucking killing on selling a strategically vital resource. They didn’t go bankrupt in the past, so maybe it’s time to quit dressing the sow up in relative numbers and start looking at absolutes? I’m not asking Exxon or any other company to become unprofitable and go bankrupt for The Good of the Nation but, and you can call me a hopeless romantic sentimentalist for this if you want, if I’d been doing well for decades, no threat to my business, my paycheck or the viability of my business, and then suddenly made out like a bandit because my country were at war and my fellow citizens were dying in far off lands as a result, then maybe, just MAYBE I’d feel slightly bad about ripping off their less-affluent relatives here at home when I really didn’t have to.
Again, I’m not asking Exxon to sell gas at a loss to be patriotic, I’m just wondering if it’s really decent that they’re growing big, fat and extra happy when they don’t have to in order to keep the business running.
But that’s capitalism, and I believe in it. If they want to and insist on being amoral, bloodsucking assholes with an attitude of “fuck you Jack, keep your hands off of my stack” and “who gives a fuck if the stiffs are getting raped at the pump, we’re just making hay while the sun shines on the rotting corpses of our soldiers”, then it’s their right.
As it is MY right to tell them to go fuck themselves and make a solemn vow to not get near any of their pumps if it means that I have to walk.
I hope that Mr. Raymond enjoys his blood money and doesn’t allow himself to get too distracted by the fact that his wealth, escort whores and gambling trips were paid for with the blood of young men and women infinitely better than he’ll ever hope to be.
“Exxon. Because we’re flaming immoral assholes too.”
April 17th, 2006 at 6:59 pmDo you remember the late 90’s when the price of crude dropped to $9.00/bbl.? When asked for help to keep the independents from having to close down, the people and the government told us to go take a flying leap. In the early ‘80,s when the price got up (briefly) over $25/bbl., they hit us with a “WindFall Profit Tax“?
It’s hard to run a cyclical industry that when time are bad or good, your told to just deal with it and don’t you dare change the price of your product to compensate for it.
Big oil is the Halliburton of the people. The reason they make a lot of money is because they are big and invest a lot of money.
April 17th, 2006 at 7:24 pmIf the exec were to give his retirement money to help lower gas costs, it woulf lower the price of a gallon in the US by $1.00 for one day. The prices would go back up the next day.
April 17th, 2006 at 7:32 pmAnother thing you rarely hear about is the amount of cash that the oil companies are investing into research for alternative power sources like solar and wind.
April 17th, 2006 at 7:40 pmYeah, I read it too…and I’m not one goddammed bit happy about it…how much is enough?
April 17th, 2006 at 7:51 pmDamn…I may have thrown in the towel to soon. I think I underestimated the people here as afar as understanding that capitalism works , even for oil companies.
I can understand our Emperor’s unhappiness about paying so much for something that is needed to survive…..but there is always the other side of the story. I get pissed that to completely fill my truck costs damn near $100, but I remember the times my company was pulling money out of their “war chest” (I worked for a good company that knew prices went way up and down and saved against it) just to pay salaries and vendors.
As far as patriotic, I would be willing to bet that the major U.S. companies would, if they haven’t already, give the military a real good price on fuel to keep the machine running. After all, it is a good investment.
April 17th, 2006 at 7:58 pmA lot of these high gas prices are because of excessive taxes on gas. Taxes that were imposed when the price of a gallon was about a dollar. It was thought that these taxes would not be noticed because gas was so cheap, and it was something that everyone had to buy.
The cheapest gas in the country can be found right here in Portland, Oregon. Right now it is a little under $2.50 a gallon for the cheapo gas.
In Seattle, gas is over $3 a gallon because of layers of state (we just passed a new 9 cent raise in legislature to “pay for new highways”), county and city taxes. Someone has to wean government from taxes on gas. It is insidious because it cannot be avoided, and drives the prices of everything up across the board.
I am thinking about selling my car altogether. Who wants to take out a personal interest loan to ver a tank of gas?
April 17th, 2006 at 8:04 pmUsing rough numbers, cause it’s to expensive to drive over to the gas station and look at the sticker listing the taxes, in Kaliforiastan, we pay $0.38 Federal and $0.36 State tax on each gallon. Then they tack on the regular state tax of 8.25% (Los Angeles county) on top of that, which, of course, the 9th Circuit ruled was legal to tax a tax, which federal law says is a no-no, but when have they ever let law get in the way of what should be legal?
April 17th, 2006 at 8:25 pmThat’s over $0.80/gal. right there.
Oilman beat me to it. I am more angry at having to pay about .55cents per gal here in Arizona in taxes. I would dearly loved to have had a pile of cash to invest in the oil companies. Instead I am screwed paying 28% in income taxes. Just imagine how business would be impacted if I and others like me could invest that 24K I paid in taxes.
April 17th, 2006 at 8:45 pmYou want to know who really makes a killer profit at the pump. It ain’t the oil tycoons.
The total tax on a gallon (in NC) is 97c. It was listed right there. Just the state portion is 3x the amount the oil company makes. And all the money the .gov gets is pure profit, as they can do what they wish (”It’s for the roads”, my ass!)
The government doesn’t get nearly enough flack for its gouging at the pump, IMHO.
April 17th, 2006 at 9:00 pmI would feel better if said taxes were humped into alternative energy research. Intead, the companies themselves are expected to front the costs of this kind of research.
I hate that I am being involutarily taxed to support Hookers, Homeless people and Illegal Aliens with gas taxes.
April 17th, 2006 at 9:09 pmI’m sure of it.
Doesn’t help the families of those servicemen and women much though, does it? It doesn’t help them pay for the runs to the grocery store, nor does it help them to pay for the increase in prices that inevitably follow when the transporters who carry the groceries to the stores have to jack up their prices to stay alive either.
Listen, I’m well aware of how capitalism works, and I’m equally well aware of the difference between revenue and profits, and I’m sure that everybody else here is as well, so I won’t bother reading aloud from my old textbooks.
They can charge whatever the Hell the market will take, whether they need to or not in order to keep their businesses running, that’s how it works and that’s fine. The problem is that in order for market forces to work, you have to be able to substitute if the supplier you’re used to jacks up prices above what they need, leaving a space for others to jump in and offer the same good at a lower price.
For some reason, that doesn’t seem to work here. If it DID, some discount gas supplier would’ve jumped in a long time ago in order to exploit the gap between $36 billion in profits and, to grab a random number, $10 billion. Again, profits, not revenue as in “what’s left over after salaries, facility costs etc. are taken care of.”
Notice that I’m not crying for the government to step in and regulate it, that would be socialism and that way EUnuchistan and madness lies, I’m just stating that it’s fucking immoral and that I’m having a really hard time feeling sympathetic towards the leeches abusing the free market to line their pockets in times of war.
April 17th, 2006 at 9:14 pmImagine my surprise when I lived in Phoenix (in 78/79) that the price of gas was about $0.05 less there than in L.A., where it was refined and then shipped to Phoenix. Even after transport costs, it was still cheaper there.
April 17th, 2006 at 9:14 pmI feel the same way LC Peter Bland. Here in the Peoples Republic of California we pay over $3 a gallon [87 octane may be slightly under $3] and if I’m not mistaken I believe around one dollar, if not more, is due to state taxes.
Regarding homeless: Here our Mexican “I love illegals!!” Mayor masquerading as Los Angeles’s mayor wants to build more homeless shelters spread out throughout several cities. I heard a report that Arizona is now bussing their homeless into LA since our citizens are so stupid they would just think Berkeley students were visiting down here and think nothing of it. LA has become a cesspool of illegals, homeless and liberal idiots. Don’t get me wrong, we need to help the homeless but encouraging their lifestyle is not the answer; it just perpetuates the problem. Santa Monica, a once beautiful city, is now not only swamped with hippie liberal filth but the number of homeless in the streets is staggering. Well, the liberals passed idiotic laws in Santa Monica and now they are living with the stupidity of their decisions……The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Sorry for my off topic rant.
April 17th, 2006 at 9:28 pmEmperor
My feelings,biased as they may be, are that this sumbitch just happened to retire at a high point with the company doing well. when a company does well, the Board and investors feel generous. Lucky him.
I know he would have rather drilled locally if the rules hadn’t been stacked so high that it cost more to follow them than to go overseas.
Why do you think that Unocal sold all their domestic exploration rights and refineries? They were just retro-regulated to the point that they didn’t want to deal with it anymore.
We use to dream of the day when oil would hit $30/bbl. and stay. We figured life would be good. $60 never even was considered, let alone today’s crossing $70. This package is excessive in the way that good champagne is excessive. You buy it when you feel rich, and then a few months down the line you wished you had that $100 back. The oil industry will have a setback soon, and they will wonder why they gave that bozo their $170 mil.
April 17th, 2006 at 9:45 pmWelcome to the corporate world of golden parachutes. I don’t see any reason to single out the oil industry. If we’re going to do that, let’s talk about putting limits on the electric company, the natural gas company, etc.
At least this guy was apparently a money-maker for the company and the share-holders. Unlike a certain electronics company my husband worked for. This guy took over as CEO, turned a money-making susidiary into a loser, then sold it off, at a loss, and gave himself a bonus for the deal.
Yes, let’s do talk about all those stinking taxes that drive (pardon the pun) up the price of gasoline, shall we??
April 17th, 2006 at 9:51 pmWhat’s strange is gas is far cheaper in the Democratic People’s Republic of Oregone than it is here in Washington.
Well, we make up for it by not having an income tax.
Take that, you smelly hippies!
Anyhoo, His Evulness has a good point. The nature of military bases, especially Air Force ones, makes it miles and miles between the housing areas and gas stations. Not to mention the PX, Commissary, etc.
Shoot, I had to walk three miles to work EACH WAY many times while stationed at MCAS Futenma. The best part was when the officers and senior enlisted would blithely drive by because “we had a bus system”. The fuckwads.
When I was finally allowed to drive, I made sure that my seats were full every time I drove by. I did not want to emulate those supercilious cunts./rant off
Anyway, gas is usually far cheaper overseas, but there is little difference in the states. For some strange reason, in California at least, the base gas was not much of a bargain over gas on the economy.
and it was over six miles between the commissary and my base housing in Pendleton. About an equal distance for civilan stores. Count in the daily 12 mile commute, and you can rack up quite a gas bill.
April 17th, 2006 at 9:54 pmWell, SoCal, my real beef isn’t really all that much with Raymond who got paid almost half a billion for being the best at getting blowjobs from his secretaries while kissing the right asses above him.
Whatever Exxon and the shareholders choose to do with their profits is up to them. They earned them, all considerations as to how aside, and they can spend them on inflatable rainbow unicorns as far as I’m concerned. Sure, I’ll make fun of them and tell them that they’re flaming idiots, that’s my right, but I wouldn’t dream of demanding some sort of idiotic “control” on what they can and cannot do with their money.
All too often, criticism gets taken (not by you, I’m talking generally here) as a call for somebody to step in to regulate.
Not with me. That’s a perfect example of a “cure” that is infinitely worse than the ailment.
As far as Raymond is concerned, all I can say is that it’s laughable to even suggest that his years of whatever service it is that he’s rendered since he managed to earn enough ass-kissing credits to become CEO are worth almost half a billion. But again, and I cannot stress this enough, that’s up to Exxon and their shareholders. If they enjoy being idiots, then more power to them. It’s their money and they can do with it what they please.
I’ve met quite a few CEOs in my life and they tend to fall into roughly two categories: The ones that have built up the business they’re running from scratch who are, with very few exceptions, smart, extremely qualified people who’ve earned every penny by the sweat of their brow and, in the second category, the ones who’ve floated to the top like turds in existing big businesses by felching the right people and fucking the right daughters.
But enough of that. My MAIN beef is that there is no way in Hell that anybody is going to convince me that a record profit, again, profit of 36 billion comes about simply out of dumb luck and because the market demands it. The unfettered market demands, as any student of economics will tell you, that businesses make as little profit as they can make while still remaining viable because if they make more, somebody else will step in to fill the void.
So whenever you have sudden record profits like this one, you know that something’s fishy. Since market forces demand that anybody making a killing will be pushed out by somebody willing to do business for a smaller profit, something else is at play here.
Feel free to speculate in the rest of this thread, all of you.
What I DO know is that we’re paying more at the pump than we have to, again referring only to market forces and most emphatically NOT to arbitrary concepts like “fair.” Also, I’m equally emphatically NOT calling for regulation because the LAST thing we need is another bloated government agency telling us all what gas “should” cost.
I just know, using simple logic, that if you can make a record killer profit during times where you ought to be struggling like crazy to keep newcomers from crowding you out, something isn’t working the way it should.
And I resent having to pay for it.
April 17th, 2006 at 10:03 pmHmmm, seems like someone hasn’t done their homework here:
Does anyone think that the price of gas wouldn’t have gone up as much even if Mr. Raymond hadn’t gotten that tidy little retirement package?
Come on! Don’t be bashful…
Is anyone bent out of shape that the state and federal governments (and some local ones) are extorting one hell of a chunk of earned dollars from gasoline consumers?
April 17th, 2006 at 10:06 pmOh, and to address the other issue brought up in this thread, an issue equally relevant to gas costs if not more so, namely gas taxes:
I’m all in favor of gas taxes as they were originally envisioned, i.e. as a way of paying for roads and directly related costs. There’s no sense in demanding that people who don’t drive pay for the convenience of being able to, so gas taxes for that purpose, as well as vehicle registration fees etc., make perfect sense to me.
Problem is, as we all know, that those monies aren’t being spent on roads and directly related expenses. So my suggestion is that monies levied in the form of gas taxes be earmarked specifically and that any politician caught spending them on anything else be brought up on charges of fraud, theft and embezzlement and shot. Without appeal.
I feel the exact same way about Social Security taxes. They’re all fine as long as they’re spent exclusively on what they were supposed to pay for. Anything else should earn the thief an instant firing squad.
April 17th, 2006 at 10:12 pmHere’s how I see it. The oil companies may not be doing anything illegal but their business practices are not honorable. Oil companies take advantage of any perceived event to raise prices and see to it that supply is low. They maintain an artificial shortage and thus we pay more for gas. There’s plenty of blame to go around and California has its share. Here we used to have about 36 refineries in the 70’s and now we only have about 10. There is no shortage of crude oil and drilling in ANWR is only meaningful if we can refine it. Bush could have his “eternal friends” the Saudis agree to pump an extra 1 million barrels a day but it’s a moot point if it cant be refined in a timely manner. And OPEC has a vested interest in keeping oil prices high. Our Arab Oil Pimps™ are happy colluding with one another while they artificially produce high prices that couldn’t exist in a competitive market.
We also need to decrease the amount of different octane’s we have. It should be no more than two, not three. This would decrease cost of refining oil. Also some gas that is used in one state cannot be used in another. This is absurd. California’s liberal idiots [redundancy] have passed such stringent environmental laws that our gas has become more expensive to produce.
April 17th, 2006 at 10:40 pmHere is Kalifornistan, when the gas taxes were specifically earmarked for only roads, ran up a surplus into astronomical figures, but nothing got spent and it just sat there earning interest.
Then, somehow, they decided on a plan to spend this money. No roads were improved, no new roads were built, then the money was gone. This was followed by a major earthquake that required funding to retrofit all the highways and byways. That required an increase in the gas tax.
Tell me how the asshats in government are taking care of the infrastucture that keeps this country moving. I know all that money ended up funding some local traffic circle in a city of 150 people, paying for the driveway of some official, or resurfacing some street in a “depressed” area to provide jobs for a “minority owned” company of some brother-in-law of some mayor.
April 17th, 2006 at 10:47 pmIf you relax the regulations, they will come.
Or, the other choice is just to make the California standard the Federal standard. Clean burning gas is good. As long as it doesn’t contain MTBE’s.
Everyone use to bitch about the catalytic converters that were mandated in California, but they are required everywhere now. If we’re going to go for a national requirement, shoot for the best.
Of course, there was that scientific study that said clean air was going to cause Global Warming due to the planet’s atmosphere not being able to reflect enough sunlight.
April 17th, 2006 at 11:02 pmStill playing pinball in my head on this thread. It’s very disturbing to look at from a conservative/capitalist viewpoint and not be able to nail it down without abandoning your principles. My head was about to explode on this issue (and others of
course)
Thank You Sire, I think you finally found an articulate viewpoint that fits well with my muddled perspective:
ahhh…that’s the rub as old Wil would have said, Economics. I would hazard a guess that few of us (my less than humble self included) delve into that topic sufficiently to hold our own. Hat Tip to Drs. Sowell and Williams for “forcing” me into correcting my ignorance in this complicated field of study.
That did it for me. Tis’ why you’re the Emperor and I, a humble serf. Thank you sir for staying with us through the thread, we’re a hard-headed, scurvy lot without doubt, and you kept us on track. I hadn’t been able to see the obvious-when normal economic/capitalist dynamics stop working an outside force is at play.
But alas, the answer I was seeking is solved with a bigger question. Slice of Paradox Pie anyone?
April 17th, 2006 at 11:03 pmOT: but did you this cannibal blogger freak was a Kerry campaign volunteer!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! How deliciously appropo.
April 17th, 2006 at 11:55 pmI am no expert on global market economy, but to predict the damage from Katrina on top of Iran deciding to take that final leap over the bar of threatening WWIII, well, I didn’t see it coming.
Like I said earlier, for an industry that had set its benchmark at $30/bbl., this is heady and uncharted territory. Unless you want to use example of the DotCom bubble, which didn’t turn out very good, it hasn’t happened in my lifetime.
For the oil industry it seems to be boom or bust. very little in the middle ground.
If Iran chooses to go for it, they could, embargo us and chances are the domestic oil industry could face a collapse for want of supply. I wonder if our buddies in the U.N. would be willing to sell us oil for kickbacks?
I could go into my thoughts on what would happen to oil if Iran actually nuked Israel, but it’s late and I managed to stay up and watch 24. 3:30am will come much to quickly, so I’ll shut up (for now).
April 18th, 2006 at 12:33 amThat much money can’t buy him a chin or straight teeth, it seems.
April 18th, 2006 at 12:41 amThe Emperor may be a bit peeved about the cost of gasoline BUT but the Emperor is no dummy… (hence the reason we all keep coming back…:lol:)
Misha doesn’t lose site of the one of the real problems: “I’m all in favor of gas taxes as they were originally envisioned, i.e. as a way of paying for roads and directly related costs. There’s no sense in demanding that people who don’t drive pay for the convenience of being able to, so gas taxes for that purpose, as well as vehicle registration fees etc., make perfect sense to me”
From the Northeast Midwest Institute: What Is the Highway Trust Fund?…
I don’t know about you all but is funding someone else’s alledged need for mass transit YOUR problem?
April 18th, 2006 at 6:40 amI think all of you are missing one point that would make gasoline a hell of a lot cheaper.
Right now, each state mandates their own set of blends. One state’s blend is not usable in another state, and these special blends cut total refining capacity and are expensive as hell to produce in many states. Can we please have ONE Federal standard? Even if it’s Kalifornistan’s blend, just one blend would cut costs to produce and jack the refining capacity.
Another problem is that our refineries, thanks to environuts, have not been updated or expanded since the 1970’s. The bottleneck is the refineries, NOT the availability of crude. OPEC has no control over prices right now — the horse has the bit in its teeth.
April 18th, 2006 at 7:37 amPeople, people people, you are forgetting another major item !!! Yes, taxes add on about 85 cents a gallon to every gas bill. And thats a MAJOR ripoff. BUT just as important , consider CHINA, its balloning economy has increased its oil consumption TWENTY FOLD since 1995.You take that much crude out of the supply, add taxes, build no new refineries,let the envirowackos demand over 100 different expensive fuel blends, not allow drilling in anwar ,the coasts, or the Gulf, and its a wonder that gas isnt 5.00 a gallon. And Al gore still owns his Unocal stock!
April 18th, 2006 at 9:49 amThe US Goverment makes more money per gallon than the oil companies.
I realize oil companies are the perpetual bad guy in the US, but if you study the price of cars and houses in the US, you will see that they have increased in price significantly more than gasoline over just about any time period you select.
I’ll take market driven prices over socialist control any day.
April 18th, 2006 at 9:53 amNot only that, saintknowitall, but if you consider the real dollars cost of gasoline over the last, say, 75 years, you find that the price has actually dropped or stayed constant. Think about it- you made, say, 45.00/week in 1950. Gas would have been about 24 or so cents a gallon. Fill up that 10-year old Ford Super DeLuxe- 15 gallons. 3.60 for a fill-up. I make about 500.00/week. Fill up that Sable- usually about 13 gallons. Last night, it was 36.00, at 2.95/gallon- slightly over 12. That, as a percentage of income, is relatively constant. Considering all the bullshit an oil company has to deal with today, that is fuck near an economic miracle.
Socaloilman, IIRC, that was the self same oxygenate that California REQUIRED for the “summer blend” style fuels. Heh- then the state turned around and kicked the oil companies’ collective asses for using the stuff because it was a suspected carcinogen. After they advised the state MTBE was not a very environmentally friendly additive to be using.
April 18th, 2006 at 2:28 pmI’ll leave this issue of the oil company’s cost and profits aside. One read through the comments shows that it is a complex picture with many different competing factors leading us to an ultimate result.
I’d like to talk about the “gentleman’s” retirement.
I believe in capitalism. I get to pay student loans for the rest of my life in the amount of an extra house payment a month. Without capitalism, I’d be screwed. However, I see a figure like this, and I take it as a general symptom of the world we live in. I’m sure he has been getting paid well during his tenure with Exxon. I’m equally sure that he had some sort of stock option program. Between the two, he could have made very sizable investments and still had enough to live better than 80% of us, I would estimate at least seven figures of good. Good for him. Luck usually isn’t a factor in determining who gets to be a CEO of a major corporation. Ability usually plays a key part. Capitalism should reward ability. The possibility of a big payoff is the kind of thing that drives innovation and achievment. I have no quarrel with that. But I have to ask, how many million dollars are enough? You can really only have so many houses, cars, and yachts before you’ve stopped being an engine for the economy and started being an asshole. Sure, he may be contributing a lot to charity. He may have set up foundations, and hospitals, but at some point the compensation outstrips the contribution of the compensated. I have no doubt that this gentleman will live out his remaining days very, very comfortably. Good for him. But with that kind of money, his kids, and his kid’s kids will also live very comfortably, and never have to work a day in their lives to do it. This kind of retirement is dynastic wealth. It marks the contrast between leaving an estate for your family, and creating idle hands with the money to do real mischief. Look at the Kennedys, the DuPonts, the Firestones. This kind of money accords a “defacto royalty” status on people who have done nothing to earn the type of power that comes with this kind of money. I’m not sure that the shareholders really felt he was worth it. I’ve paid for services that I have REALLY appreciated over the years, but I never felt compelled to part with enormous sums of money in compensation. And this only raises expectations in other corporations, which gives us the trend of very generous compensation for those who run companies into the ground. I’m not saying I have a solution, or that there is a ‘one-size-fits-none’ answer to be applied, but it seems I’m the only one asking the question “How many millions are enough?”
April 18th, 2006 at 2:55 pmhttp://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0002/20060418/0512430251.htm
Here’s OPEC’s delegate saying essentially that crude prices have no sound reason for being at $71/gallon. There’s plenty of supply there to meet the demand.
When does supply vs. demand not work?
When a cartel is involved.
April 18th, 2006 at 3:32 pmCorrection, Gutshot — when a speculator is involved. Speculation and the oil market is based on imaginary what if scenarios that have no real basis in reality.
April 18th, 2006 at 5:08 pmIn Denmark we pay 1.6 USD a liter, and I beleive the Norwegians are paying even more, kind of funny since we produce than we use.
April 18th, 2006 at 6:18 pmlassesor says: “In Denmark we pay 1.6 USD a liter, and I beleive the Norwegians are paying even more, kind of funny since we produce than we use“…
I do believe you are right… Last year it was a buck sixty eight a liter over in Norway of which about 60% according to my relatives are various taxes…
Give us a few more years and we in this country will end up as socialist as the Scandanavian countries…:lol:…
Oh no! The sign of the beast and Norwegian gasoline are working hand in hand…:lol:…
April 18th, 2006 at 6:53 pmBlackiswhite, I enjoyed your post and agree with your points. As far as this comment of yours:
I agree. I knew the DuPont’s grandson and he was an absolute waste of space. He was a serious drunk and drug addict. He never had to work and received an allowance each week from his grandparents, which was spent on booze and drugs. He dressed like a sloth and actually looked like a bum. I don’t think I ever saw him sober. But hey, he was a nice guy. I also was friends with David Murdock’s (Dole Foods) son who was another f*ck up. Quite different from the DuPont’s grandson but was also a kid who never intended to work a day in his life. Instead he opted to be a royal arrogant asshole to everyone. Strange what vast wealth of parents can do to their kids.
April 18th, 2006 at 9:29 pm[…] This even has avowed and unabashed capitalist Misha upset. Pigs, or Rottweilers, do fly. Income gap mentality By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist […]
April 19th, 2006 at 8:38 am(moonbat)
Where’s all the barrels of sweet Iraqi crude that we went to war for?
I’m sure Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove are stockpiling it at the “sooper sekret” refinery (Built by Halliburton) located at Bush’s ranch in Texas.
They’re driving the price up so they can make a killing when gas hits $10 a gallon!
Damn those neo-con bastards!
(/moonbat)
April 19th, 2006 at 11:27 am