Do you think the oil companies rule the would?

Question

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcXLFDuAJNE&NR=1

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Answer 1

They certainly don't "rule", and they have no more influence than any other group of large and necessary corporations, such as the medical industry (The American Medical Association is the largest lobbying group in Washington, DC). Communist dictator Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has very clearly shown how vulnerable the oil companies are to government intervention and takeovers, and many dictators before him have done the same.

Answer 2

I don't know about "rule", but they certainly have one of the greatest influences. Interesting enough, with the US's nuclear technology, we could easily be completely independent of oil as energy within 15-20 years. Less than 400 new nuclear reactors in the country would supply every last drop of our energy needs, and then some. The last reactor built was in the 1970's, so even that technology is almost 40 years old. It obviously has only gotten safer, cleaner, and more efficient since then. It's just that everyone here's the word "nuclear" and runs screaming. If we had less ignorant people around here who bothered to do the research instead of just assuming everyone's going to die of a nuclear explosion (which is physically impossible due to the rods not being enriched enough and not having critical mass or shape), or everyone will die horribly from radiation. People, unfortunately, see Chernobyl (which was a steam explosion), and three mile island (who's radiation exposure was equal to that of a normal chest x-ray and has killed no one), and they automatically assume it's terrible and we should look in another direction.

Answer 3

Not hardly. Most of the oil resources of the world are controlled by governments. Oil companies control less than 10% of the oil reserves.
The United States, Russia, and U.K. are lucky enough to be at least partially oil independent.
Oil wealth and oil dependence have both been the curse of many countries.

Answer 4

Oil companies have a huge amount of control on the world and world politics. It seems that petroleum products are in nearly everything, for instance our medications, gas for cars, heating oil for homes and the plastics we use to store our foods and products we use to build and maintain our homes. With that in mind, we must think that oil companies do control much of what we use in our everyday lives.

Answer 5

Corporations do rule the world, and the oil companies are part of the team.

All politicians who receive donations from corporations (which is probably all politicians) are bought and sold. I would really like to read about a politician who voted for or against a bill that negatively impacted one of their corporate contributers.

Answer 6

Anyone that's worried about "corporations" ruling the world, here's an idea:

Quit spending your money on their products. Take a stand. You have a voice in the form of your dollars. Quit 'voting' for corporations.

Oh wait. That would require something called sacrifice. We, who actually know what sacrifice is, realize it is easier to talk tough than to actually do something. In that case.... carry on smartly.

Answer 7

No.
Don't think so.
Look around at the mess out there.
Ever wonder how the men who would be king were making a mess with "My way" in kicking the butts out of the misery of living human kind on planet earth.
Ever wonder how the men who would be king threw our creator out into "The street of London" with the betrayal of Judas?
Luke 11.46