Profitts at $40000.00 a minute !

while I agree that fuel prices are getting out of control. I whatched something on T.V. the other night that stated only 6% of big oil companies money come from selling fuel. The majority of there money comes from selling crude oil they have discovered.

 

There has been a email circulating for some time now that suggests that if we want to try and do something about fuel prices. We should boycott 1 fuel company and stop buying fuel from them it will get the point across.

 

Very few stations are owned by a name oil company, most are franchises owned by small businesses. All a boycott does is hurt them.

It's far more effective to write or call your Senators and Representative and tell them to end all subsidies for oil production and consumption:
Contact Elected Officials: USA.gov

 

I'm not a fan of big oil, but profits are perfectly legal with our system of free enterprise. Exxon is a very large company with a very large amount of capital. They should make big profits, or their stockholders will dump them.

Rather than focusing rage on Exxon, perhaps we should ask ourselves how we got into this situation, and how we can best get out.

Tom

 

Their profits are consistent with the size of our addiction to the products they sell. If we don't like it, we should quit using those products.

 

By driving a car that uses half a much of their product compared to other cars! :rockon:

 

I'm not sure I follow the logic of this. Ending subsidies usually means prices go up to cover increased costs. Am I missing something?

 

This old chestnut comes back every time gas prices shoot up. Our local road columnist deals with it just about every time. This will not work to bring prices down. The only thing that will is for the whole driving population to drive less, using less gas over a long period of time.

I like to think we Prius drivers are doing our part to bring that about.

 

Actually, I think that gas prices ARE following the laws of supply and demand. You must remember that the demand is worldwide, and China and other Asian countries are increasing their demand for oil.

On the supply side, supplies are somewhat uncertain due to unrest in several middle East countries.

Add into the mix some of the currency exchange gyrations going on and the current price of gas can be explained pretty well.

And always, when this sort of complaining starts to get shrill, I try to remember that people in most European countries pay twice or more what we do in the US.

Drive less and drive slower is the mantra.

 

Maybe. The cost does have to be covered by increased prices. The real problem with subsidies is that they distort the market. Every other technology that could replace gasoline gets dumped since they are undercut with profitable companies that are subsidized with taxpayer money. In effect we keep putting out of business the small companies trying to create solutions.

 

Agreed. Or, if we can't quit, we can reduce our use of it.

 

Good idea, that'll piss off big oil and take a lot of money away from Obama's reelection campaign.

 

Profits keep you employed.

 

Also remember that the pump price paid elsewhere has nothing to do with the price of oil; higher (or lower) prices are due to taxes on the product.

 

Remember that oil extraction is a business where there's an increasing scale-to-profit relationship. XOM is the largest of the conglomerates.

To put it in perspective, looking at Wal-Mart's (where most Americans buy cheap Chinese-made crap) 10-K filing:
Consolidated net income attributable to Walmart: $16,389,000,000.

That's 16 Billion dollars. Almost 44 million dollars a day. Working out to $30,500 per minute.

It's not like the majority of you are going to stop being consumers of crap.