Just Color Me Baffled

Click this post's title for an interesting article by Alan Caruba on Ten Simple Truths About Oil.

Why, oh, why, does everyone want to punish 'big oil'? Windfall Taxes for Dummies

Be sure read the above article all the way through.

Next: Why do people favor dropping the federal gas tax for the summer? do they not understand the economic repercussions of such a move? 1)Gas consumption will go up which makes prices go up (supply ad demand, duh!) 2)Federal revenue receipts will go down.

Evil Oil Companies The author at Not Your Daddy has some interesting charts regarding Oil Industry profits in comparison to other big industry profits. Be prepared to be blown away. Oil is not at the top of the list It's pharmaceuticals followed by the banking industry. Big oil is second from the bottom when it comes to profits.

Bill Dupree,Patriot Room put it quite well: "The oil companies actually pay for research and development, exploration, drilling, refining, storage, distribution, marketing, advertising, and defend themselves against craven politicians, all for 9 cents on the dollar. The government produces nothing and takes the tax money.

And how much is that, you ask?

From 1977-2004 the oil companies made $643 billion. The combined Federal and State taxes were $1.3 trillion. Yup, for every dollar earned by the oil companies, you pay two to Uncle Sam.

In fact, since 1977, there have been only three years (1980, 1981, and 1982) in which domestic oil industry profits exceeded government gas tax collections. In the remaining years, gasoline tax collections consistently exceeded oil industry profits, reaching a peak in 1995 when gas tax collections outpaced industry profits by a factor of 7.3.

Why nobody calls these bloodsucking politicians to task when they rail against BIG OIL baffles me."

Baffles me too.