Defending the Truth

Thank god the oil companies are doing ok... I worry about them.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/busi...rtner=homepage

Thank God for companies that are profitable. It adds tax money to the nation's coffers to pay your salary and support your mission and provides jobs to a lot of Americans.

Do you know where bees go to the bathroom? At the bee pee station.

This is not correct. The reason BP is earning record profits is because the price of oil has increased, and oil companies base their profit per gallon on a percentage of the price of oil. Or more simply: BP is making more money because people are paying more money to get the same amount of oil. This has a negative effect on the standard of living of most people, for they have less money to spend on other things.

Further, the nation is not making any additional tax dollars. If gas prices had been cheaper, surely BP would have made less money and would therefore have been taxed less money. However, people would still have spent the money they saved; they'd have just spent it on something else. So if I used the money I saved at the pump to buy a candy bar, then the candy bar's company would be taxed too, which makes up for the lost tax on BP. The difference is that I'd have both gas and a candy bar instead of just gas. My standard of living would be improved.

As for additional jobs, similar logic is applied. BP could use their extra profits to create new jobs. However, the candy bar company could also use their extra profits to create new jobs.

Now don't get me wrong; I am pleased when companies are profitable because they are an important and necessary part of the economy. However, I'd rather a company become more profitable by providing more services. In the case of oil companies, they are becoming more profitable by making people pay more money for the same old product. This is not the optimal situation.

I left out my [sarcasm] [/sarcasm] tags...

The price of gas is NOT going down because people are NOT conserving.

Despite $3 per gallon gas, Americans are buying more gas than ever before.

BP and the other gas companies are simply cashing in on our stupidity.

That's true. Although I think its deeper. There's this whole status symbol mentality that people have to buy these walls-on-wheels, these large rediculous trucks that get like 15 miles a gallon, even when they may live in the city or don't even need that power to tow anything. That and because people are pretty short-sighted too. As gas goes up, SUV's and truck sales go down. But once the gas goes down again, the SUV and truck sales go back up again. I don't understand how people can be so short-sided. They don't understand that gas fluctuates...the price is just going to go back up again.

95% of the people that own these 4-wheel drive vehicles NEVER need them.

I live in the far north, and I drive a 2WD pickup for my "side business". If I can't get through the snow without a 4WD, I shouldn't be out in it.

I think it's funny when people buy off-road vehicles (like jeeps) and never take them off road, because they don't want to mess them up, or scratch the paint. It's silly. It's like not using a flashlight so the bulb does not burn out.

What a great country. Mrs. Alias and I work at home so we save a lot of gas and can put that into our boat to cruise up and down the Columbia River drinking fine wine and catching walleye. Yeeeeehaaaaa.

I'm not certain this is the case. This article claims that Americans are consuming less gas in the first half of 2006. The article does claim that record amounts of gasoline are being imported, however this import is apparently due to the need to offset the lack of gasoline being produced in domestic refineries after hurricane Katrina destroyed a few. These imports are not due to increased gas sales. Ah, here is the link to the article:

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Stor...CB%7D&keyword=

And here is another article which talks about the profits of ExxonMobile in the first quarter of 2006:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14056592/

What these articles tell us is that while gas sales in the US dropped 1.3%, ExxonMobile's profits increased by 12%. This increase in profits does not appear to be caused by increased gas consumption in the US.