It is quite annoying and indeed puzzling why the US Government has been powerless to stop the fleecing of the Taxpayers in this country, by rich Oil Companies who proudly declare massive profits, in the face of a recession that has caused record Foreclosures and Job Losses. One problem is the fact that these Large Companies…Oil and other types of Companies are now Multi National. They exist in the Clouds…in the Ether…in 1000 offices around the world, and no where in particular.
Their Money and Bank accounts are secret and wedged into little known banks in far off places many of us have never heard of. Some of these banks are actually owned by shell companies of the Multinational Companies so they can have many Bank Branches and Affiliated companies all over the world and thereby transfer funds from one place to another without having to legitimately pay dues to any one Country or entity.
In fact this “Banking Shell game” was how some Companies…one in particular, owned by Multi-billionaire steel magnate Fritz Thyssen, hid money from the Nazis with the help of none other than…The Bushes. This is all laid out here…http://www.rense.com/general26/dutch.htm
So…Exxon Mobil and many others are due to start paying taxes…in Venezuela. The Wily Mr. Chavez apparently has the balls of steel needed to sock it to these Oil Companies who up until now, got away with large profits while paying minimal taxes to countries, including the US. Apparently Mr. Chavez has decided to charge a Windfall tax of 20% on oil priced above $40 per barrel, the tax will raise to 80% on oil above $70 per barrel, between $90 and $100 the tax raises to 90% and above $100 the tax will be 95%. Venezuelan Crude Oil reached $94 on Tuesday.
I guess Mr. Chavez has decided that if the US does not want or need the Taxes enough to collect it, he will…and use it to run His Country’s social programs. Do you think the Oil Companies will not pay the Venezuelan Taxes? I suspect they will. Next question is, when we Subsidize the Oil Companies…Is that Socialism?
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Henry,
I think your immediate attack upon someone that has a differing opinion is unwarranted and speaks to the lack of thoughtfulness of your position in general. You (incorrectly) assert without a shred of evidence that I am either an oil company executive or have been bought off by some billionaire. Then you go on to imply that I would be looking to settle an argument with violence (why else would I be screaming and looking for my pistol ammunition) when in fact it is you who is advocating taking property of others by force.
You speak of making a legal case but have not presented one single shred of evidence that a crime was committed – be it murder or racketeering – by any (let alone all) large corporation.
One cannot cite our laws against criminal conduct as justification and then turn around and announce guilt without due process. That sir, is hypocrisy.
Do you really think that all the employees whose pension funds are managed by CALPERS are knowingly investing in murderous enterprises? Do you really believe that once a company grows to be $1B in revenue that this could only be done through ill-gotten means?
Are you as a consumer complicit as well for purchasing their products? (If so I sure hope you aren’t using any Apple or Microsoft products to access the internet – those companies surpassed $1B years ago).
So setting aside your other rambling aspersions perhaps we should think about this: You have accused corporations over $1B of committing heinous crimes without a shred of evidence proffered. We all know that these companies only operate through voluntary exchange – and if they did not they would be immediately subject to legal and criminal actions. And yet you, yourself, are the one who is advocating the forceful taking of property from others. So who here would be the violent criminal?
To Scott–Why, sir, in answer to your question, “Nationalize all large companies? By what right would you steal from the stockholders?” I would reply, “Because it is simply justice, and a considerable mercy when you think what we COULD do to all those stockholders. . .” I’m pretty sure you’re up in arms right now, screaming in dismay at the computer monitor, and wondering where all the ammunition you bought for your pistol the other day is. Let me continue with my rationale, consider it, and then feel free to fire away. . . In this country, at this time, our legal system considers conspiracy before and after the fact to be a felony, with numerous repercussions for those convicted of it. I say, and I believe a legal case could be made supporting my assertion, that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE STOCKHOLDERS is just as guilty of malfeasance, corruption, public endangerment, treason, bribery, spreading disaffection with the intent of profiting from that disaffection, in some cases racketeering or profiteering(depending on the company you are talking about), and/or murder AS A CONSPIRATOR either before or after the fact. The reason I state this is that every single stockholder has a duty to research the practices of the company he supports with his purchase of their stock, and to hold accountable executives who use deceptive, dangerous, illegal, or excessively risky business practices to keep that company running and improve its bottom line. This is both a duty to themselves as shareholders, and to the company to make sure it is not destroyed by an executive or executives willfully mishandling the company. That said, if a shareholder ignores bad business practices, or continues to purchase stock in spite of known bad business practices, that makes them an accessory to what the company is doing, by paying that company to continue in those predatory or illegal practices with the intent of profiting from that company’s bad business practices. And THAT, Scott, makes every shareholder who buys into a company that is practicing illegal acts or continues to buy stock once those illegal actions are brought to light is in a conspiracy to enable or to allow to continue–which makes them prosecutable. Simply nationalizing those businesses would, indeed, be a punishment for those stockholders–but not as much of a punishment as a public trial, since when they were found guilty that could also mean the loss of ALL of their goods tainted by the profits from that rogue company, their serving jail time, the loss of their standing in the community and their families, and possibly even death sentences for those convicted of aiding and abetting companies whose business practices involved the death of individuals or groups of humans as a result of either negligence or deliberate disregard of human safety. If you were a shareholder, Scott, which of those scenarios would you prefer? Face it, Scott–while you state that you are not preaching against researching and utilizing alternate sources of energy, you have also stated in these posts that it is too little effective, too inefficient, and too difficult to implement as long as we still have a little “dino jelly” left (thanks, JBJ–I love that description) that we can use, whatever the cost to the environment or our national security. Who are you, Scott–a oil company executive in disguise, posting here to cast more doubt among the undecided? Or a tool of the billionaires who want to destroy our way of life and keep us all slaves? Are they at least PAYING you to betray your own kind, if you aren’t one of the moneyed elite running this world as their own little playpen? To Teeluck–don’t apologize to people like this. You wrote a delightful article, thought-provoking and accurate as far as you went–thank you for taking the effort to educate Scott, but if he refuses to acknowledge there is something wrong with companies that take and take but give nothing back to our country–not even jobs to support the local economies–then that is his failing, not yours. To EVERYONE else who reads this post, please remember–the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing! Don’t let people like Scott convince you to do nothing! Keep fighting, keep exposing the truth, keep shoving it in the faces of the criminals responsible and their brainwashed ‘sheeple’ until everyone knows the truth!
S A D , I apologize for my short description if the “isms”…I realize you did not understand what I meant. It is widely thought that any and all systems of Governing a country, incorporates all of the “isms” to make it work. All countries employ a little bit of Capitalism, with a bit of Socialism, Corporatism, Patriotism Nationalism, Facism, Racism, and all other “isms” you know, to make the complete…all countries do this. You have never seen a country that operates without a bit of all these combined. So when I said “same thing” I meant they are all different fingers of the same hand. It all depends on the person’s perspective on if these “isms” each stand alone to shape a country. The general perspective is they are all incorporated into the bigger picture. Communism does not stand alone, the government still engages in different “isms” to run the whole country doesn’t it?
I still say Nationalize ALL corporations doing business in the US that report more than $1B annually. To the idiot that equates Socialism and Fascism – you’re too ignorant to comment, buy a dictionary… Obviously the US government has been bought and paid for by these same corps who are declaring record profits for at LEAST 10 years in a row (maybe they skipped one, but O don’t remember it.)
Jail the CEOs of BP (whatever happened to the post last week about 10 BP whistle-blowers being kidnapped or assassinated in the last 2 years?) and Exxon for their criminal mismanagement of their assets (the oil lost to the Gulf was an asset, and therefore these assholes CAN be held liable. But it won’t happen in today’s one-party garage sale…
Nationalize all large companies? By what right would you steal from the stockholders?
Not to stumble into an argument or anything, but is really saying “Well that solar stuff is really shitty right now, let’s not bother when we still have our rich dino-jelly” a wise long-term plan? Especially in the face of rising oil prices, whether as a result of Chavez giving the finger to Big Oil or not.
There are many alternative technologies out there, and many do still need refinement to meet demand. But that’s no reason to not invest in them at all. Give them some funding, and eventually the problems can be overcome… And it’s better we do it sooner rather than later so we can more quickly wean ourselves off of the oil teat.
Or are you honestly advocating that we scrap any alternative forms of energy and fire up the drills?
Absolutely not advocating that we would scrap other forms of energy.
However I don’t think we should be investing the public’s money in these technologies but rather each individual should research what companies / technologies they want to get behind and invest in those – and realize the potential rewards of their investment.
Scott, I agree that there is much ground to cover to get Solar, wind or many of the other technologies to the standard and cost that will make it feasible, but we have to start somewhere…with little steps, fall down and get up again and all that. Your argument against it has done very well for the car companies for the past 20 years, it has helped them to keep the volt off the market for at least 10 years. I dare say we would have had 4th generation electric or hybrid vehicles if he had not pandered to the Oil companies. There are also other things he could have steered us to use instead of gasoline, but he didn’t.
Yes Reagan was corrupt, just like all our politicians, as we see clearly displayed in our politics. The only Politician I can feel safe with is Bernie Sanders.
Reagan was also not very intelligent hence his removal of solar power from the aspirations of a wanting nation. We have him to thank for many wrongs including getting Aspartame on the market, and the resulting poisoning of millions of people. You wonder why there has been a rise in Child illnesses like ADHD and many more that affect the childs brain and development.
Teeluck –
I think you are misinterpreting my position – I am not “arguing against renewable energy” at all. In fact, part of my business involves finding economic uses of renewable energy and other technologies.
The reality is that solar is not yet developed to the point where it is economically feasible as our country’s major source for electric power. It may be someday – or may never be.
Same goes for electric cars – the Volt, while interesting, doesn’t have the functionality that most people need in a car particularly with respect to usable range. And it’s cost is far more than competitive gasoline and diesel models.
To state that the physics problems would have been surmounted had government policy or certain investors and businesses redirected their efforts is absolute conjecture. There is no way to know that these issues would have been – or ever will be – solved.
To lay the blame for having not created an invention of technology that you desire at the feet of oil and auto companies is absurd. Ford or Exxon should no more be responsible for creating an electric car than should Starbucks or K-Mart.
Equally I don’t think it is the government’s (and certainly not the US President’s) responsibility to develop new technologies in energy and transportation. Their job is to get out of the way and let people innovate new technologies that we the consumers can vote for if we like by buying them.
While I have my gripes with Reagan one of them is certainly not that he was corrupt. Again, do you have evidence of this?
Not intelligent because he removed Carter-era solar panels? Do you know why they were removed? The roof beneath them needed repair so they had to come down. They did not go back up as the cost of re-installation was more than the value of the energy they were saving. How is that stupid? Also, are you going to call GW Bush a genius since both solar hot water and photovoltaic panels were installed on White House buildings during his administration? I’d hope not.
So you did not answer my question on tax rates but added a new and unsubstantiated aspersion calling Reagan “corrupt”. It sure would be nice if rather than name-calling we could see some well-formed, fact-based positions.
Socialism and Fascism are actually different – but both stem from similar roots in a philosophy that does not recognize private property.
Who is to say that investors in oil would turn their capital to solar? They may choose copper mining, agriculture, manufacturing or communications or any number of other industries in which to invest. Solar technology is still far from viable from a cost of power production standpoint. How many people would be content when their power bills literally triple in price – along with the energy component of most everything they buy. We also have the minor grid issue with solar same as wind – not only getting the power from where it can be generated to where it is needed (without too much transmission loss) but also at the time of day it is needed. No, there are not such a thing as the type “batteries” we would need to store all that power.
While on the face “sustainable” energy sounds very nice there are real problems with the technology that we are still quite a ways from figuring out – if they even can be solved. The laws of physics unfortunately can’t be changed by policy.
You say Fascism…I say Socialism…Same shit, different day. If Oil prices rise, maybe as you say, investors may put their money in “greener pastures” like renewable energy, and live long enough to enjoy it and have their Grand children enjoy it. If Reagan had a clue, he would have picked up where Carter left off and installed more Solar Panels around the country, thereby starting a new Energy Revolution…instead because he was corrupt and clueless…he had the Solar Panels on the White House removed…Remember, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Chavez in his infinite “wisdom” may help the world to a greener future after all…
Teeluck –
Have you really researched the oil companies you write about? XOM does exist is specific places and pays income tax on their global profits to the US Government. At a rate of about 40% of earnings.
How do you justify categorizing a 40% tax rate as fleecing the other taxpayers when they are paying that kind of rate to the US Government on ALL earnings, not just what they make in the US?
Did you pay more than 40% of your income to the IRS and feel that XOM got off easy?
So Chavez is going to take his cut off the top and you think this is good news. Maybe for that egotistical dictator it’s good news but not for the rest of us. For us it is very bad news and here’s why: According to the plan as you report it (I haven’t verified that you have the facts correct – so just taking your report at face value.) Chavez takes from the total revenue regardless of the cost of producing that oil and regardless of the value of the US Dollar. If the cost of production in Venezuela gets too high or if the value of the dollar (continues to) declines then you could see oil producers stop producing oil there as it would no longer be economic. That means less supply of oil produced – higher prices globally.
Further, oil companies, like any corporation, need investors to provide them capital so they can operate their business – in XOM’s case that means hiring people and building facilities to produce, refine and distribute petroleum products. As Venezuela’s tax rates become increasingly confiscatory the oil company’s profitability declines to the point that it is a fairly high risk for a marginal return. So investors don’t invest capital in that company but find other, more promising investments instead. And now we’re back to increasing oil prices and declining prosperity and employment.
So why are you celebrating these actions of Hugo Chavez?