Exxon Mobil

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
"Lifted by record crude prices, Exxon Mobil says its second-quarter earnings rose nearly 14 percent to $11.68 billion, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation."

Seriously, WTF.
 

BiknBen

Well-Known Member
Between Big Oil, the politicians, and Detroit...This is a beast that simply can not be stopped.

We, as consumers, have to demand change. They are not getting the hint. I think the only way to see improvement is for prices to continue to go up. Then more people will demand change. I want to see $10 per gallon.

In the mean time...I will limit my trips to what I think is reasonable and ride my bike to work as much as practical.
 

BiknBen

Well-Known Member
so much for my fall foilage trip to vermont with my girlfriend, lol.

Yeah, it's a bummer that some travel related trips get canned. The fuel expense is one reason I'm not planning to race in NY this weekend. Even though I'd carpool, I'd like to eliminate the expense entirely and stay local.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
The sad thing is that when gas drops down to $3.50, people will be saying how "cheap" gas is.
 

supermike

Member
Why does our society look at profit as a crime? We built this great country on the foundation of the free market. If the government makes punishes profit, either business is going to move elsewhere, or the people who drive industry are going to give up.

Why is it the government's business how much or what corporations are raking in? If we want change, we have to affect the demand side of the equation to cause a market change. In our current situation, it's giong to be uncomfortable, but that's what we have to do.

Further, and just as important, how come we never hear outrage over the amount of tax collected on gas? I recently heard that the government makes more money off a gallon of gas than "Big Bad Oil" does. WHy should you be paying 40-60 cents per gallon to the government, when the oil companies are making less than a dime?

Complaining about someone else making a profit is the mantra of the weak.
 

crash_in_nj

New Member
When you are essentially in a gov't subsidized industry, you have to accept a little more gov't 'input' than those who aren't. I wasn't complaining about them making a profit. The problem is, sometimes there is collusion among businesses (ahem, OPEC) to control prices. Are you sure you want the gov't not to interfere with that?

The recording industry was hit by a pretty large price fixing scandal not too long ago. Would you have preferred the gov't left them alone to do their thing? Is that really a free market? Gov't regultaion is often a blunt instument, but that doesn't mean it isn't needed.
 
J

jimex7

Guest
Who cares profit this profit that it doesn't make a diffence to us if we weren't getting screwed by gas prices where would we get it? Property taxes?
We are all screwed.
 

clarkenstein

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
JORBA.ORG
as an accountant, its honestly pretty amazing how many subsidies and tax breaks oil companies get. they RARELY pay taxes in comparison to other industries to be honest... and in some cases, they never pay taxes where most companies would be hammered. if most people saw the accounting and tax treatments oil companies get (because of the control oil co's have on all of the wallets of the politcians they 'lobbied' to get the special tax treatments) they would probably be even more ill than just hearing what profits they have made.

and that federal tax on gas rounds out to about $.16 - $.17 per gal. state tax increases it more... but if you didn't have those taxes, and you think our highways are bad now, nevermind potholes, we would have miniture canyons on all our federal highways.

regulation is not poison for business. our banking system, although flawed and is taking some pretty good hits right now in the news and on the market, is by far the most sound banking system in the world, and is also the most heavily regulated business in the US. if it wasn't so heavily regulated, it wouldn't have survived what it is going through right now... it would have been dead in the water easily a year and a half ago when most banks had an inverted yield curve...
 
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UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
"In addition to making hefty profits, Exxon also had a hefty tax bill. Worldwide, the company paid $10.5 billion in income taxes in the second quarter, $9.5 billion in sales taxes, and over $12 billion in what it called "other taxes."


So on that 11.68 billion, they paid 32billion in taxes. 3 times their profit, I'd call that paying taxes.
 
D

DANSPANK

Guest
I think it's a tough call on us in the US as we basically have the cheapest petrol in the world. We're likely still almost half the price of other countries. I s'pose when an oil company looks at the prices the petrol is sold for in the US against the prices in Europe and elsewhere they think that the US is getting off lightly.

I know the quality of the petrol in the US is lower than elsewhere but I still think it's a deal - sorry kids.
 

guava

New Member
the prices are being set on the futures market, which is actually where only a small fraction of the oil selling happens, making it easy to manipulate the price. The oil companies buy back their own and each others contracts utilizing hedge funds, and drive up the price. Anyone remember the CA energy crisis in the late 90's? I sure do. I was one of the people that was getting bills increased by 300% out of the blue. It turned out that energy companies were creating artificial bottlenecks in the system to cause shortages. Enron was a leader in creating all of this energy speculation, writing the legislation that republicans ushed through creating these energy futures markets. Mcain's buddy, Mr. "nation of whiners" introduced it.
 
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