ExxonMobil Price Fixing

Joe,

Look up the term profit margin. The oil companies are not making any
more than before the run up in prices. The raw commodity costs more
for them as well and of course those costs are reflected at the pump,
which in most cases owned by an independent entity. If you have a
401K, you are likely a shareholder in many oil companies.

The problem is the OPEC cartel and lack of domestic refining. Not the
oil companies.

Wow...I thought it was all the oil companies taking part in this and
here its just Exon/Mobil.

As a matter of fact quite a few people
(your neighbors probably) were smart enough to buy stock in thes oil
companies a while back and they are reaping the benefits now. So for
them its even money (or more) when they fill their gas tanks.
But then what goes up must eventually come down they say.

If the American government had any cahones left, they would take away
your unjust profits and distribute it evenly amongst Americans via
another economic stimulus check.

this is what your whole complaint is about, isn't it?

I feel like there is far more going on with the oil industry than any
one of us Average Joes and Janes knows. Like Redhead said, we deserve
this for being a greedy, wasteful, selfish corporate culture. Why
would the government give up its greatest source of revenue to please
the citizens? Where have you been the last hundred years?

This particular issue must look totally different from a non-American
point of view.

He was pretty candid that his responsibility is to shareholders. They
expect him to bring in profits. He made the case that many people
would be impacted by ExxonMobil reducing their profits.

And not just people who already have tons of money. But also people
with XOM stock in their 401(k) and IRA. Working people, retired
people. People that he can't suddenly cut their income.

He also pointed out that XOM's profit margin was about average. There
are many companies that make much bigger profits than XOM.

In the end, his perspective is that he needs to run business as usual.
By messing with things in order to "help" certain people, he feared
he'd hurt others.

It's an argument that's been used with environmental issues, too.
(Read Michael Crichton's "State of Fear")

It's an argument that's been used with many other government
policies.

"This particular issue must look totally different from a non-American
point of view."

Oh, you mean where they've always paid MUCH more than we've paid. In
fact, the lowest prices in some countries in the last 20 years is
still higher than what we pay now.

People in other countries, however, build their lifestyles around the
fact that gas is expensive. They build their cities and economies in
very different ways.

Think this is going to cause us, longer term, to change how we live
our lives?

If you did any research, you would know that:

Exxon/Mobil and other gas companies make 9 cents per gallon. Both the
state and federal governments are taking almost 40 cents per gallon.

If you really believe that redistribution works (which it doesn't) and
demand it, shouldn't we demand it from our government first?

I would say if the American people had any "cohones" as you graciously
put it, we would demand our government take LESS taxes in the first
place.

We should also give the oil companies the ability to build new
refineries (which hasn't happened in thirty years, thanks to a
government moratorium), as well as the ability to drill the trillions
of gallons of oil we have domestically (which is currently off limits
thanks to government intervention and the environmentalist lobby).

Do you know what would happen if we started taxing and redistributing
gas companies profits? They would leave our country to avoid it,
putting people out of jobs in refineries that we do have domestically.
They would not invest in new technologies/refineries to get more oil,
which is harder to get now.

If you want to make a difference, call your elected government
representative, demand that we start looking at utilizing the
trillions of barrels of oil we have in our country.

I agree. But we have the government we deserve. Lack of interest,
lack of involvement, lack of education... all these things are part of
why and how corporate America gots its grubby hands on our government.

You have an anger that is shared by many.

I wonder what, besides your passion, you think should be done. What
are you suggest that the "average Joe" do? Reduce our consumption?
Steal gas? What?

Or are you saying that you've spoken to your lawmakers and asked to
impose an ExxonMobil-only tax? What have they said?