Yes, I believe they are,
In three different ways.
In three different ways.
Nationwide, there is an average of 46 cents added to the price of each gallon of diesel or gasoline....added by the various governments with their hands in our pocket. This is the average; your state may tax you more, or less. And yes, I know most of that money goes towards road building.....but not all of it. Every penny collected by taxing fuel, should go towards building and maintaing roads, nothing else. The amount collected is staggering, Trillions of dollars have been collected by governments from the sale of oil products. I do not think any government should charge the taxpayers a handling fee, for collecting these taxes. We'll call it that, but we all know what it is.
I make my living on the highways of America, so I know some tax is needed, but not this much.
I drive by a huge road construction project 4 times a day, (I believe it is the largest construction project ever, in the state of Missouri, it is LARGE) and it amazes me to see the awesome machinery of capitalism working so magnificently. It is amazing to watch road building. Companies like Haliburton invest billions of dollars in specialized machinery just to get gasoline to us at a reasonable price, (check out the price of fuel elsewhere, say Europe) and the road building companies invest billions of dollars in specialized machinery, used only for road building. I for one am grateful for big oil, and big construction.
BIG OIL....I'm glad they are big, we all benefit, and the 10 cents they make on each gallon of gas I use, is a fair profit margin. All of you wishing to punish the big oil companies are not very bright....any burden you place on Big Oil, will be paid for you at the pumps....DAH
Likewise I am not advocating abolishing the tax on fuel, but it could use some careful auditing.On the average the oil companies that put up the capital and take the risk (think hurricane damage, etc.) make a profit of 10 cents a gallon. I am not going to argue semantics with you, so we'll just consider the 10 cents a gallon profit is gouging. If that is gouging, what is the 46 cents the government collects on each gallon?? The part of that tax windfall that is wasted, is gouging.
So I am hearing people moaning to the government about the profits made by the oil companies. Bizarre, you want the biggest gouger of all, to punish the gouger in third place? Any more government involvement in what is left of the free trade in the oil industry will result in long lines at the fuel pumps, high prices and shortages, and you will only have yourself to blame. The business is already over regulated and has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in forced compliance to environmental rules, but again we the consumers paid for them. Those environmental rules have helped us all, so that was a good investment. I am glad that this industry is watched closely, and that we have learned to extract, and refine oil safely, and without damaging the Earth. Not all nations can say the same. The Persian Gulf Countries are not as good to the Earth as we are. All in all, I think Big Oil does an excellent job of getting gasoline to consumers.
Of course there is nothing we can do about the price the OPEC charges us for crude, and we use more and more each year. Funny thing, I don't hear many people railing against the OPEC countries that are the second biggest gouger. I don't think there is political will to end our dependance; I think Washington likes to have a scapegoat to blame. We have a refining problem that will not be solved until Washington puts the envirowacko's in place. No we don't want the Government to take on Big Oil. When they take on, or take over something they make it worse. Every time...every single time.
Here is the list of the gougers, in order.
1. Governments
2. OPEC
3. Big oil
The first two on that list do nothing at all to bring gasoline to your neighborhood Seven Eleven.They produce nothing, but you pay dearly to them.OPEC is only the owner of the deposits of oil, it sells its oil in the ground, so it does nothing but make money. They would never think of getting their white robes or soft hands dirty.Yes, I'll join in the call for action against gouging, in this order, Government, OPEC then Big Oil.
I make my living on the highways of America, so I know some tax is needed, but not this much.
I drive by a huge road construction project 4 times a day, (I believe it is the largest construction project ever, in the state of Missouri, it is LARGE) and it amazes me to see the awesome machinery of capitalism working so magnificently. It is amazing to watch road building. Companies like Haliburton invest billions of dollars in specialized machinery just to get gasoline to us at a reasonable price, (check out the price of fuel elsewhere, say Europe) and the road building companies invest billions of dollars in specialized machinery, used only for road building. I for one am grateful for big oil, and big construction.
BIG OIL....I'm glad they are big, we all benefit, and the 10 cents they make on each gallon of gas I use, is a fair profit margin. All of you wishing to punish the big oil companies are not very bright....any burden you place on Big Oil, will be paid for you at the pumps....DAH
Likewise I am not advocating abolishing the tax on fuel, but it could use some careful auditing.On the average the oil companies that put up the capital and take the risk (think hurricane damage, etc.) make a profit of 10 cents a gallon. I am not going to argue semantics with you, so we'll just consider the 10 cents a gallon profit is gouging. If that is gouging, what is the 46 cents the government collects on each gallon?? The part of that tax windfall that is wasted, is gouging.
So I am hearing people moaning to the government about the profits made by the oil companies. Bizarre, you want the biggest gouger of all, to punish the gouger in third place? Any more government involvement in what is left of the free trade in the oil industry will result in long lines at the fuel pumps, high prices and shortages, and you will only have yourself to blame. The business is already over regulated and has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in forced compliance to environmental rules, but again we the consumers paid for them. Those environmental rules have helped us all, so that was a good investment. I am glad that this industry is watched closely, and that we have learned to extract, and refine oil safely, and without damaging the Earth. Not all nations can say the same. The Persian Gulf Countries are not as good to the Earth as we are. All in all, I think Big Oil does an excellent job of getting gasoline to consumers.
Of course there is nothing we can do about the price the OPEC charges us for crude, and we use more and more each year. Funny thing, I don't hear many people railing against the OPEC countries that are the second biggest gouger. I don't think there is political will to end our dependance; I think Washington likes to have a scapegoat to blame. We have a refining problem that will not be solved until Washington puts the envirowacko's in place. No we don't want the Government to take on Big Oil. When they take on, or take over something they make it worse. Every time...every single time.
Here is the list of the gougers, in order.
1. Governments
2. OPEC
3. Big oil
The first two on that list do nothing at all to bring gasoline to your neighborhood Seven Eleven.They produce nothing, but you pay dearly to them.OPEC is only the owner of the deposits of oil, it sells its oil in the ground, so it does nothing but make money. They would never think of getting their white robes or soft hands dirty.Yes, I'll join in the call for action against gouging, in this order, Government, OPEC then Big Oil.
No comments:
Post a Comment