Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Oil company bail-out

[JAshburne (JAshburne]

The whole windfall profits tax idea was complete bullsh*t anyway.  At  its 
peak, the most profitable major oil company made barely 11% net profits  margin 
and paid very significant corporate income taxes.  Meanwhile there  are dozens 
of companies and industries with higher margin that never got a  second 
glance as making too much money.  Microsoft, for instance, routinely  makes a 
net 
profit margin in the high 20's percent and nobody in Congress ever  cared about 
that, nor should they.  Since when is making a profit a bad  thing?
 
Now that we are using less oil, FedGovCo is scrambling to find ways to  
replace the lost fuel taxes.  Where has all the money collected so far been  
spent? 
 It's hard to believe that the government, which collectively makes  three 
times as much on a gallon of gasoline as an oil company, (for no work or  risk, 
by the way) has been spending those taxes on our roads that are falling  apart 
faster than the new construction projects can fix them.
 
The hypocritical thing is that the clamor to increase the gas tax or to  
institute Oregon style "mileage" taxes are incredibly regressive taxes and hurt 
 
the fabled "little guy" more than the high income earner.  Where is the  
concern for the little guy among all the politicos who have been jumping on  
the 
Obama "spread the wealth around" bandwagon?
 
What it all boils down to is that the collective Us of the United States  are 
rapidly letting the government get bigger and bigger and taking over more  
and more control of our lives.  The majority feeling in this country seems  to 
be that the very first reaction to any problem (bank failures, crappy  car 
companies not being competitive with other car companies making cars in this  
country, etc, etc.) is "Let's have the government fix this problem".  This  is 
a 
huge change from the capitalistic system that made this country great in  which 
having the government get involved in anything was the LAST choice and  only 
after all other private market solutions didn't work.
 
God save the United States, because we could really use some enlightenment  
down here!
 
John
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 1/3/2009 10:58:02 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
rolindsay [at] yahoo.com writes:

Hey  Gang,

Oil is selling for 1/3 what it sold for a year or so ago. Same  with 
gasoline/petrol. 

Its funny that no one is offering bail-out money  to an industry earning 1/3 
of what it did just a year or two ago. And unlike  Ford, GM and Chrysler, we 
don't make a crap product!  And our industry is  grossly under staffed with 
increasingly fewer senior scientists and  engineers.  Many campuses believe the 
CNN-style uber-greenie crap and now  discourage students from entering the 
energy sector. Been there, witnessed  that!  Let's just hope that we don't end 
up 
with layoffs and early  retirements in oil and gas exploration, as in previous 
down-turns, or pretty  soon $4 gasoline will seem like an incredibly 
fantastic bargain. 

Rick  - waiting for the recovery, or retiring
Sent via BlackBerry by  AT&T

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