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In fact the government takes about 42 cents on every gallon of gas sold and the typical oil company makes about seven cents. Do the math on that." - Jungle
ok that accounts for .49 where might the the other $3.70 be going?
Senior Member
Uhm...Originally Posted by stratosjoe
Oil discovery, drilling, oil rig expenses, salary of oil rig employees, cost to transport crude to refineries, oil refinery expenses, salaries, power, fuel additives, administrative costs (gotta pay all of the employees, from clerks to receptionists to the CEO), markup to regional/local fuel distributor, cost to get fuel tankers from distributors to the local gas station, and at least 1000 other things I haven't even thought of...
Senior Member
Agree with some of this ^. But.......Medicare and Medicaid are programs that do protect citizens.
I have worked witha lot of children and adults with profound retardation, cerebral palsy. If it were not for medicaid they would not be in our community, The would be in a warehouse under the worst conditions you can imagine and many of them would not be here at all. Same for medicare, a lot fewer seniors around.
So some may think this would be a good thing. I think Hitler sent the mentally retarded to the showers to purge the unpure.
But I do agree with war spending out of control (world police), deficit year after deficit year and look at the national debt now. Medicare and medicaid have driven up health care costs, but the programs are needed. Some health care changes are needed.
Back to big oil. Look how much money goes into blacktop, bridges, roads, traffic lights, stop signs, road stripping, guard rails. All to use the oil companies product. All this infastructure that has been base on a single commodity (oil). No wonder the have so much power now. So they have benifited tremendously on government spending. Let them pay their fair share.
So I'm not necessarily for less government but more responsible govenment.
Senior Member
I hear what you're saying....but right now Medicare and medicaid are both under the radar, being looked at, etc....and this WILL change life as we now know it to be.
I'm still kind of thinking Willie Nelson had the right idea several years ago when he wasn't paying his taxes....heck why not screw the government, when all is said and done they're gonna wind up screwing us in the end anyway...no pun intended there fella's
Senior Member
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I'm sure these same costs were included in the price of fuel a year ago before the blame was put on strife in the middle east for the increase in oil prices ...Not sure what the price of fuel was a year or so ago before all that but if a barrel of oil was under a hundred dollars at that time then it looks like if the profit margin doesn't increase then fuel should follow the decrease in oil prices,it doesn't quite seem to keep up with the decrease in oil prices the same as it does the increase ...would be interesting to see a fuel price comparison ......fuel prices vs. oil prices over the last couple years...Its tough to believe corporate greed isn't playing a role.
Senior Member
Did we mention CEO bonuses, executive bonuses, executive options, executive perks?
The point I was making is that the USA (and many other countries) have invested and built the most expensive infastructure (highway system) ever built all centered on one comodity (oil). Oild has benifited by this investment. Without modern highways oil use would be down, down, down.
There is no government infastructure for pork bellies, metals, ect.
Oil companies do not maintain or build highways. So a tax on oil is needed to maintain bridges, roads, overpasses and yes air quality, ground water and on and on.
Even still it is you and I that are paying this gas tax, not oil companies, its collected at the pump.
So whay not ask oil to help with this infastructure cost? Why not regulate a business that has thrived on government investment?
I cannot walk or drive my mule on interstae 65. If I use I65 I have to be in a gas powered vehicle. Can't even use my moped.
Last edited by kydonky; 05-14-2011 at 07:56 AM.
Senior Member
Yes, I believe I did. LOL The same can be said for any other corporation in any other industry. The CEO's and executives make bank. From a dollars in the bank standpoint, the oil executives are fat and happy. Of course there is greed in the formula! If the "American Way" was a religion, greed would be somewhere in its 10-Commandments. You think the big oil executives are the only greedy ones? Let me tell you what...the greed card is played in this country from the top of the food chain to the bottom. Whether it's a CEO who has 2 jets, a helicopter, a $50 Million mansion, and baby seals swimming in his 6 acre swimming pool....to an upper-middle-class Joe who has to have a much bigger house than he really needs, $50K truck, $30K bass boat, steak dinners out whenever he feels the need, and complains constantly about the greedy oil executives and their lavish lifestyles that make it so hard for him to fill up his truck and boat. (A truck and boat that cost so much because of the greed of the auto maker, car dealership, boat manufacturer, boat dealer, whomever, trying to give their families those same things.) It's all relative, and a great big circle. There are a lot of folks living with a whole lot more than they really need to get by. We're all guilty somewhere. I won't lie - I have a big expensive truck that I don't have to have to get by. I could just as easily operate on a 20 year old 2WD regular cab Ranger. Most Americans are greedy, plain and simple....and we've had the economy/lines of credit over the years to feed that greed. We could all live simple and frugal, keep only what we need to sustain, and give our excess wealth to the hungry and downtrodden around the globe...but we don't do that. We live "The Good Life" by acquiring as much material possessions as we can afford based on maximizing our income level over our lives in the pursuit of what makes us happy. It is what it is! I, for one, am pretty happy that we live in a country where we can do that....even if it's totally screwed up from a priorities, common sense, or environmentally responsible standpoint.
As for the taxation issue...yes, we pay a higher tax at the pump than just your normal "sales tax" like on other goods we buy. Lets not forget that the oil companies are also taxed on their profits too, just like any other. They have some tax breaks, just like other corporations, but they are paying their share of taxes too.
I think when you get into the debate that oil companies should be paying higher taxes than other companies because they effect so many other things in the economy, you're going down a slippery slope. Auto makers effect so many other things too, so what about them? What about corn growers, and dairy farms, and cattle ranches that have an effect on the prices of food that everyone must have? What about timber companies that effect all of the lumber prices that folks must have to build homes? What about, what about, what about....could go on and on. Are we going to regulate them all? Business making profit and being competitive with other businesses is kinda the fundamental pillar of free enterprise. I'm just not a fan of encroaching upon that.
We'd have to all go buy a Prius to force oil companies to lower prices. But then, the demand for the Prius would be so high that Toyota would raise the prices on those suckers through the roof. Then, as soon as the oil companies dropped prices due to much much lower demand, we'd all go trade our Prius back to trucks and suvs because we could afford the gas again...and the circle jerk would continue.
Whomever has the supply that the consumer demands, gets rich. Bottom line!
I wish gas prices were lower. I think we are paying a crazy price. But I really don't know what to do about it that would change anything, aside from finding alternative fuels....but supply and demand would eventually put those alternative fuels in the same price boat, wouldn't it?
Senior Member
I wish gas prices were lower. I think we are paying a crazy price. But I really don't know what to do about it that would change anything, aside from finding alternative fuels....but supply and demand would eventually put those alternative fuels in the same price boat, wouldn't it?[/QUOTE]
Need to build infastructure that competes with gas or change use of current infastructure. How about designation some roads for electric (golf cart included) cars or bikes only, rail services ect.
Senior Member
Splitshot........while I pretty much agree with what you're saying, I really don't believe it is all greed. In your own example of yourself, are you greedy??
I don't consider myself GREEDY because I drive a nice vehicle, my wife drives a nice vehicle and I have a decent boat. NONE of these are top of the line, but they are certainly not clunkers.
BUT I don't consider myself greedy because of it. Nor do I consider myself greedy when I TRY to get to that American dream. I know lots of very successful folks who are close to being priced "out" of the market with their homes, vehicles, etc, etc, but I don't consider them greedy. Most of these folks also give very generously to church and charity. I don't think a greedy person would be so charitable........
Like I said, I really agree with most of what you said, but I'm not too sure GREED is quite the right word.....especially when you apply it to normal middle class folks.....
Later,
Geo
Senior Member
I get what you're saying...greed probably isn't quite the right word. The principle of buying more than you really need is what I'm trying to convey. I don't really consider myself greedy, but I do consider myself to have much more expensive stuff than I really need. The older I get, the more I feel like those things that I've just GOT to have really aren't worth the price you pay...none of it amounts to a hill of beans when it comes to what is really important in life.
I feel hypocritical to bitch about the price of gas, when nobody grabbed me by the arm and drug me down to the Ford dealership, gun to my head, and forced me to sign on for 60 monthly payments on one of the most fuel inefficient rides on the lot...I just HAD to have it...knowing full well that it would bend me over at the gas pump every week.
DUMB, maybe that's the word I'm looking for....LOL....
Senior Member
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We all have the desire to better ourselves as in a more modern home, newer truck, better boat, improve our income and numerous other things ...A while back union members were being chastised for ruining the country with their greed ...That seems to be a quality we all share but when folks seemingly "have everything that money can buy" so to speak and they still see fit to squeeze the American economy, even at the risk of pushing the country deeper into recession then it seems to me that takes on a different meaning on the "greed scale" ...A while back we were ranting about a certain leader of a certain middle eastern country that had golden wash basins in his personal residence while others in his country were in a constant struggle to survive ...Surely we as a country are better than that.
Senior Member
And I totally get what you're saying about unions.........the thing about them though is that I really don't blame the folks IN unions too much. What really chaps my ass is that being in a union and being TOLD by the union and whoever that you're going to be taken care of for the rest of your life doesn't change the fact that you SHOULD try to save some of your own hard earned money for a rainy day.
I know 10 craploads of folks that never saved a single RED CENT from their earnings. BIG boats, places at the lakes, fishing pontoons, personal watercraft, you name it......THEN when they get laid off or whatever they struggle and whine about not having a pot to piss in....but they sure do have a lot of nice toys. Most everyone I know who had or HAS a good union job are like that have never saved any money......I don't know if that is because they were told they would have a pension for LIFE or what, but I do know a lot of those folks are hurting.
This is one of those cases of keeping up with the neighbors. I don't CARE what boat or car they have. Mine are paid off, and my house is so close, I can taste it.
Later,
Geo
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