Are oil companies as bad as terrorists?

Question

Are they, by using any and every excuse to raise prices, robbing the American public and weaking the US economy? And do they deserve the tax breaks and subsidies the GOP gave them?

Answer 1

Oil companies do not have anything to do with the price of oil. They buy the oil at an established price set by the market, the market for crude oil fluctuates with supply and demand, as well as instability in oil producing regions. The oil companies profits are based on a certain percentage of the cost of crude, therefore if crude is $10 a barrel, a 10% profit is only $1 per barrel after they refine it, (barely covering the cost of business), if crude skyrockets to $70 per barrel, as it has, the profits are $7 per barrel after refining. the common misconception is that there are some fat-cat oil executives who just decided to raise the price of oil. If they had that power, why did the big oil companies have major losses when oil was $10-20 a barrel in the 90's?
Also, if you look at where all of the costs of a gallon of gas actually go, you will see that taxes are actually a greater percentage than oil company profits.

Answer 2

" robbing the American public" ? If the American public bought the more efficient cars that the worlds large auto makers make for Europe & Japan, they'd do far better.

But the thing tat most "outraged at gas prices" people ignore is that the per unit profit percentage isn't changing significantly - in orther words, calculating the profit as a percentage of the price per gallon, the percentage isn't changing much - the price per gallon IS changing. Over the last 8 years, oil has gone up 500% & gas has gone up 250% - what's the problem ?

Answer 3

The answer to that is so obvious I'm surprised you even bothered to ask. The only problem is your mention of the GOP. I hope you realize that the oil companies, the drug companies and the insurance companies have bought out both parties. Don't worry, Democrats will never do anything about rising oil prices, either. Both parties are totally corrupt. Besides, no American politician will ever again go against these big three. Not after what happened to JFK and RFK

Answer 4

The price of oil is based on the demand on the world market. The prices in the United States are rather good when compared with just about everyone else. You may have a point in regards to the subsidies, but we also need to expand our exploration and reduce our dependency on foreign oil. These subsidies will help this along.

Answer 5

No, oil companies are not bad or similar to terrorists in anyway. MAny oil conmpanies are actually looking into alternate energy sources. An example of this would be the new hydroelectric plant BP and GE are building in California. When completed it will provide in excess of 50000 homes with power. There are also wind Fields in many parts of Europe owned by major companies including BP and Shell. Furthermmore many oil companies give back to communiteis where old refineries or rigs used to be, one such refinery in Wyoming was recently turned into a wildlife reserve / waterpark / golf course / and top fishing spot. Oil companies are the only groups with the finances, equipment and ability to reinvest in new oil deposits, most notably deep sea and properly refine it. Without the oil companies abilit to do this there would be no gasoline or toehr petro chemicals. Much of the tax cuts the the governemnt gives to oil companies goes into investment in exploration and produciton to keep the black gold flowing.

Answer 6

I don't agree with your statement, but even if it is true, how can robbing the American public be as bad as killing people (American or otherwise)?

Answer 7

If they are we fund them at every pump, and so what it's supply and demand, when I get sick of paying I will start walking. Besides since last year my monthy gas expense only went up a meger 22 dollars.

Answer 8

Milking American public is not as serious as killing them which is the job of Pharma companies.