Dont get mad - get even. I sit out front all day just to laugh at the fuel trucks that never stop at my house any more. I go to the farmer in the next county, pay him $540 for 7000# of corn, and heat my house all winter instead of $600/month for fuel.
http://www.americanenergysystems.com/winchester.cfm
The USofA tried that in the recent past - maybe you should have remembered the one and only - awful - Jimmy (little peanut) Carter prior to penning this claptrap.
IIRC the price of gas was fixed by the FedGov - and gas was in short supply, people lives were badly impacted and businesses destroyed.
It did help the other Ronald tho.........
The letter writer is an idiot.
Gas is high because the federal and state governments levy so much tax on it. Company profits are taxed at about 41%, the gas they produce is again taxed at the pump by both the state and fed. (At what? about another 40%?)
See this link to a Mark Perry article:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/63131-exxon-s-2007-tax-bill-30-billion?source=side_bar_editors_picks
“...I’m pretty sure that Exxon’s tax payment in 2007 of $30 billion (that’s $30,000,000,000) is a record, exceeding the $28 billion it paid last year.
By the way, Exxon pays taxes at a rate of 41% on its taxable income!
[Update: The $40.6 billion and $39.5 billion figures are after-tax profits. For 2006, Exxon’s EBT (earnings before tax) was $67.4 billion, it paid $27.9 billion in taxes (41.4% tax rate), and its NIAT (net income after tax), or profit, was $39.5 billion.] ....
According to IRS data for 2004, the most recent year available:
Total number of tax returns: 130 million
Number of Tax Returns for the Bottom 50%: 65 million
Adjusted Gross Income for the Bottom 50%: $922 billion
Total Income Tax Paid by the Bottom 50%: $27.4 billion
Conclusion: In other words, just one corporation (Exxon Mobil) pays as much in taxes ($27 billion) annually as the entire bottom 50% of individual taxpayers, which is 65,000,000 people! Further, the tax rate for the bottom 50% is only 3% of adjusted gross income ($27.4 billion / $922 billion), and the tax rate for Exxon was 41% in 2006 ($67.4 billion in taxable income, $27.9 billion in taxes).”
Gas costs no more now than it did in the 70s, CPI adjusted.
What is causing the downturn is tight credit conditions.
Asset values are dropping because new money creation (debt) has come to a grinding halt and long term rates are going up, for instance the 30 year fixed jumped 30 basis points today alone. The biggest one day jump on record.
He's probably a retired steelworker whose pension is heavily invested in Exxon-Mobil. He probably doesn't realize that Exxon-Mobil can't just lower the price of gas here to $1.50 since they sell gasoline worldwide. He probably doesn't realize that 75% of all he holds dear in his life depend on petroleum based products from the tires on his car to the plastic tupperware in his fridge to the foam "#1 STEELER FAN" finger he sports at home alone when the lights go out...
Class envy and years of the union newsletter have destroyed this guy's mind and he is hopeless. He really should stop using all the oxygen in this part of the commonwealth, I might need it someday.
What's amazing is that if GOVERNMENT was really concerned about the cost of gasoline, they could cut $0.47 per gallon, or 70% more discount than ExxonMobil giving back all their profits.
And that's the DIRECT taxation; that's not including the taxation on ExxonMobil to start with. The federal income tax that ExxonMobil pays would be another $0.16 per gallon by itself....
Funny, the record taxes paid by Exxon in 2007 would more than pay for the silly little tax rebate. I guess we just don’t want to talk about that.
Yes, utterly hopeless. First, ask for Exxon's *sales* over the last 2 years.
The state of what passes for economic education...
I understand that the Republican party used to be the party of the rich but that had all changed....maybe it hasn't...maybe we have a lot of Republicans that don't give a hoot that the Mom and Dads out there are paying so much out of pocket for gas and heating fuel....
IOWS....no differant than the limosine liberals....
Yes, this guy is an incredible idiot, but further evidence of what this country is up against as it tries to make progress. Vote for HRc or Obama and more of the same.
In the same time period, they paid $201.6 Billion in taxes.
In 2006 they paid $97.5 billion in taxes.
Sales-based taxes - $30.381B
Other taxes and duties - $39.203B
Income taxes - $27.902B
ExxonMobil’s 2006 Financial and Operating Review
http://exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Files/Corporate/fo_2006.pdf
Page 22
In 2007 $105.6 BILLION in taxes.
Income Taxes - $29,864
Sales Based Taxes - $31,728
All Other Taxes - $44,091
http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/files/corporate/news_release_earnings4q07.pdf $105.6 BILLION in taxes.
Well, yes.
The last time the USA was a net oil exporting country was about 1970. It’s been downhill since, and $20 trillion of debt public and private it’s still downhill.