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I was thinking the same LD, but you said it so much better than I could have.

Until the sheeple find their brains and backbones, this county will continue it’s current demise.

Kinda off topic:
Was speaking with a guy at the gas pump this morning about gas prices. I informed him that the Feds make more on gas than the oil companies. He shot back that some oil company made $9 billion in profit last year. I replied that as of 2005, the taxes per gallon of gas in Va. was $0.37. He said that left $2.42 per gallon profit for the oil companies. I pointed out that the oil companies had to BUY the crude, refine it, and ship it (guess he thought crude was free). I also informed him that oil company profits were about 10% last year while McDonalds make about 20% profit. He gave me the ‘I don’t believe you look’. I told him to check into it for himself.

This conversation left me shaking my head. The FACT that people just lap up was is told to them by the LameStream Media scares the hell out of me. You’d think with information just a keystroke away, folks would be a bit more informed than they are.

…I also informed him that oil company profits were about 10% last year while McDonalds make about 20% profit. He gave me the ‘I don’t believe you look’. I told him to check into it for himself.

Your report of this fellow’s reaction is a classic symptom of the failure of our public education system. He obviously lacks the ability to think critically or chooses not to exercise such ability.

The intricacies of macro-economics can be rather difficult. However, the basic principles are just common sense: people exchange goods and services for their mutual benefit and profit (but not every exchange is of equal value to the each of exchanging parties), people who perform value added transformations on raw materials expect to reap the benefit (profit) of those value added transformations in an exchanges with others and people invest (put their assets at risk of loss) with intent of making a profit (increasing their assets).

I would wager that if this fellow you cited were asked to work as a plumber or electrician (assuming he had the skill and abilities) he would object to being paid the same hourly compensation as an unskilled farm hand or “ditch digger.” I would further wager that if this same fellow were owner of a dry-cleaners, he would object to not making a profit from his purchase of plant, store front, chemicals, labor and assuming the risk of bankruptcy. Yet, somehow, he seems to be unable to draw the parallel to an oil company.

Such an inability is, obviously, the result of his inability to think critically. As critical thinking is a skill that is supposed to be taught in our public school system, I think we have identified at least one of the sources of his problem.