[ExI] Under the libertarian yoke

[The Avantguardian]

--- Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> ### No worry, libertarians don't shoot innocent people. But we do
> ridicule ridiculous ideas, like the notion that oil cartels exist, or
> the completely magnolious idea that they control the US government.

Oh I get it. OPEC is a figment of my paranoid conspiracy fantasies. ;) Nice to
know Congress and I share the same delusions.
http://www.energybulletin.net/5368.html

> 
> Here is some data:
> 
> 1) A table summarizing the profit margins by industry, in the US
> 
>
http://bp3.blogger.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/SB21VNa4GUI/AAAAAAAAEZ0/ShZfqz2UE0U/s1600-h/pm.bmp
> 
> 2) An illustration of the relative amounts of Exxon's taxes and profits
> 
>
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/05/exxon-paid-almost-3-in-taxes-for-every.html
> 
> Obviously, if you control the government you don't have the lowest
> profit margins of all major branches of industry and you don't pay
> three times more in taxes than you get in profits. But, I am not sure
> you would be convinced. You already understand the calculus, don't
> you?

They had to finance our purportedly non-oil-centric government's ongoing
military misadventure in the middle east somehow. I mean China wasn't going to
go on loaning us money forever. So they buckled down and actually paid their
taxes for a change. Think they deserve a good citizen medal for that? Do you
happen to have their taxes for the last 12 years? I imagine it would show an
upward trend when the wars began.

The taxes they pay are just going toward the overhead of what amounts to their
fairly inept attempt at "conquest" in the old parlance and "liberation" in the
new. Doesn't that smell a little like desperation to you? The fact that with
their army of lawyers and accountants, they actually *paid* so much?

Look Rafal. I think you understand what I am saying but not quite getting where
it is coming from. For the love of yourself please think this through from your
own individual perspective rather than from the perspective of an "ism". I
don't hate the oil companies. It was a great ride while it lasted. They brought
America oportunities and memories that no previous civilization had even
thought possible. You want to retire them as heroes then fine but retire them
we must and soon or they'll be America's downfall. It's writ as large as Rome,
my friend.






Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"Life is the sum of all your choices."  
Albert Camus


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