Think Of This The Next Time You Fill Up Your Gas Tank

[Playinghardball]

Why is it okay for oil companies to make obscene profits while we’re all struggling?


Found on Facebook

[Zorra]

1. Because they are the 1%, they "own" all the oil, and most all governments as well.

☮ccupy is in process of changing this.

You in?

[dmallind]

2. Huge numbers, mediocre returns

Take that biggest - that was a part of a 34.4B profit year for XOM

On 467B in revenue.

Under 7.5%

Oil companies have much to answer for, from terrible safety measures to harmful and regressive lobbying. But they have lower profit margins than a corner deli.

And no, executive compensation however eye-poppinf is not a significant part of their expenses either. When you take in and spend close to half a trillion, the many many millions you pay the guys in the big offices is a rounding error.

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/financials/secfilings.asp?ticker=XOM:US

click on the current 10-k filing and scroll down to financial statements. It's all there.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. So don't invest in them.

[Zorra]

5. Dems propose 'Reasonable Profits Board' to regulate oil company profits

Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control gas profits.

The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.

The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100 percent on all surplus earnings exceeding "a reasonable profit." It would set up a Reasonable Profits Board made up of three presidential nominees that will serve three-year terms. Unlike other bills setting up advisory boards, the Reasonable Profits Board would not be made up of any nominees from Congress.

The bill would also seem to exclude industry representatives from the board, as it says members "shall have no financial interests in any of the businesses for which reasonable profits are determined by the Board."

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/205085-dems-propose-reasonable-profits-board-to-regulate-oil-company-profits

I guess some of us are just not feeling the oil companies' pain.

[Johnny Rico]

6. +1

[tech3149]

10. To put it in perspective

It's been decades since a bank account paid 7.5% interest on my balance. The companies I and my ex worked for did very well with a profit of better than 7% and executives were paid exceptionally well.
If the executives had been paid in relation to the pay of the workers or held accountable for bad decisions, the profit margin may have been better than 10%.
The last company my ex worked for went bankrupt because of poor decisions and exorbitant executive pay. The company I worked for is just limping along shedding valuable employees while the owners are still living large.

[Initech]

3. And why do they continue to get obscene government subsidies?

It probably all goes to the pocketbooks of the greedy fucking executives.

[FSogol]

7. Somebody wheat-paste this onto every gas pump in America.

Thanks in advance.

[Evasporque]

8. this is their cycle....of raising prices so we like $4.00 gas....

next year we will like $4.50 after a 5.25 spike....

[truebrit71]

9. Never mind that, why the fuck are we still giving them subsidies when they make that much $$$

...that is beyond insane..

[Blue_Tires]

11. kick