Yesterday I walked over to the Deli Mart to get some staples. Milk, sugar and bread. On coming out of the store I sat down on the "Liars Bench" outside of the store to talk with some of the local color I've grown to know and enjoy conversation with. It really does make me feel good at being accepted as a "local", especially being one of those "Damn Yankees".
One older gentleman pointed to the gas price sign, where one of the Deli's employee's was changing.
Price of a gallon of regular gasoline today: $2.73
Up five cents since yesterday. My friend then began to spout some diatribe about "Those evil, greedy oil companies and how we went to war in Iraq just for the oil!" I just bit my lip and didn't say anything, as I'm just about sick and fucking tired of that tune.
If we went to war to get all that oil, why the hell are we paying this much for gas? And if that's the case, we could have easily have done it back in 1992 in the first place. If we actually went to war in Iraq just for the oil, why aren't we paying the same as I did for a gallon of gas when I first started driving, .56 cents a gallon?
In most things I'm what I consider a libertarian, but I am a Fiscal Conservative. I understand that companies are in business to make money. I respect that. If I owned a company, I pretty much would be doing it to make money.
Not a really hard concept to grasp. Economics 101 shit.
So I really don't begrudge any company making a profit. That's what they do. The provide a product or service, for a fee, and reap a profit.
But I still had to think about this. I've been hearing all this crap from the politicians on how the "Evil, Greedy Oil Companies" are scalping the US citizens. So I did a bit of research and found this out:
Broken down by percentages, where the money goes on what we pay for a gallon of regular gasoline:
39% goes to the oil producers. (That's the folks who actually get it out of the ground, not the oil companies)
35% goes to Federal, State and local taxes.
13% goes to distribution and marketing
7% goes to refining and transportation
6% goes to net profits
Ok, I wasn't an economics major in college, but I do understand this one thing. If I had a company that was only making 6% net profit on a good or service I was selling, I'd be pretty pissed. The ones who are screaming the loudest, also are the ones who levied the damn taxes in the first place. If the damn politicians really want to lower the gas prices, whey the fuck don't they repeal some of the taxes?
They won't because they think it's their money, not ours. It's easy money, and it's just not who's sitting in the Whitehouse right now.
I'll give you another example about how fucking greedy the politicians are with our money. Back in 1898 the US went to war with Spain over a ship that was allegedly blown up in Havana Harbor. (Remember The Maine!) so, as a fledgling World Power we went to war, and actually won to the amazement of the rest for the world.
When we went to war with Spain we really didn't have the finances to cover that little foray into world politics. We were still almost bankrupt after the Civil War and The Reconstruction.
So Congress decided to levy a "Luxury Tax" on this newfangled little thing that was just taking hold in America, the telephone. This "Luxury Tax" of 3% was only supposed to be to finance the Spanish~American War. That's it.
That war ended over one hundred years ago.
Did congress repeal that Luxury Tax after the war was over? Fuck no, and it's still levied, every month on your phone bill.
Enough is enough already! I'm not in a really high tax bracket right now, but I feel I'm taxed enough. I'm taxed at 28% Federal, 15% State & Local on my wages every two weeks. I go to the grocery store and I'm taxed on my groceries. I'm taxed when I make a phone call to fiance a war that's been over for a hundred years. I fill up at the pump and I'm gouged again, not by the "Evil, Greedy Oil Companies" but by my own Government.
I am just sick and tired of theses political nabobs telling me they think I don't need a tax cut, when it's my fucking money to begin with!
They want to improve our way of life, stop bleeding us dry!
One more. A pack of cigarettes? You know how much money the "Greedy, Evil Tobacco Companies" are making on each pack we buy? .05 Cents. A stinking five cents a pack. That means that out of the $2.60 I pay per pack of smokes, $2.55 goes to taxes!
Oh, well Tom! That's a "Sin Tax"!
Oh really, asshole? Last I heard it was still a legal substance. Stop jamming you morality down my throat too! You bastards did that in the 20's and 30's with Prohibition and you see how well that worked, didn't you, you bunch of damn Smoke Nazis!
So stop blaming these high gas prices on George Bush, because what we pay and how the money is allotted was decided long before he took office. Don't blame the oil companies. Don't blame the war in Iraq.
Look to your own representatives. You voted for them. It's up to you now to let them know how you feel, and if they won't listen, let them know on election day in the ballot booth but I seriously doubt that will happen anytime soon.
Ted Nugent was right. We are a nation of "Sheeple" (Sheep/people... I love that phraze)
Whew... I'm glad I got that off my chest.
I'll get off my soapbox now.
Copyright 2005 Thomas J Wolfenden
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4 comments:
In Australia, most of the oil from which petrol is refined comes from Bass Strait and the North-west Shelf, so we a capable of producing oil for much less than OPEC will sell it for. We are capable of it, but we don't; in the eighties the federal government introduced a policy called World Parity Pricing, which means that we pay the same for our oil as we do for middle-eastern oil. I don't know iwhere the extra money goes, but I do know that more than 40% of the price of fuel is going to the government.
About three or four years ago the government introduced a Goods and Services Tax on the promise that they would scrap a lot of 'hidden' taxes, like sales tax, wholesale sales tax, etc. The taxation level on alcohol, tobacco and fuel remained exactly the same because the government said that they weren't taxed; they had excises levied on them. Which is completely different, of course.
All of which has helped me set a new PB for longest comment.
Same thing happened here back in the 70's Dirk. In the middle of the last "Oil Crisis" we shut down and capped all the active oil wells in Texas & Oklahoma...
Curious. That and we get more oil from Venuseuala that the Middle East now...
Everyday I pull up next to the receptioinst's car wiht the bumper stick that says "how many lives per gallon?" and every day I have to controll the urge to slap the shit out of her. Great post!
Oh hell, I'm a fiscal conservative, social liberal. I hate high taxes. I hate that we're in Iraq. Loved that we went to Afghanistan. Wish we still ever thought about catching Osama, scum-sucking bastard that he is. Where was I? Oh yeah, hate high taxes. Did I miss the point somewhere. My point I mean?
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