Let me start this post out with a caveat: I am not anti-profit, In fact it’s a man’s right to grow a business for his own gain, irrespective of good will toward others. I do not think we ‘owe’ anyone anything else by the mere fact of our existence. Ayn Rand’s, “Atlas Shrugged” is a pinnacle of my economic and tax beliefs.
But, and you all knew this was coming, I couldn’t help but seethe with rage at a headline on CNN this morning:
Exxon Posts Record $11.68 Billion Profit
And then on Drudge:
Shell Reports 33% Rise In Profit (that would be $11.56 Billion, btw…)
Eni and Repsol also have gotten profits in the billions.
So let me ask this, do you really think that supply and demand created a market for $4 a gallon gas? I find that extremely hard to believe, almost incredulous, that at a time when roughly 5-7% of the mortgages in the United States are in default, at a time when personal consumer debt has never been higher, at a time when inflation is affecting food costs beyond most families’ ability to control the budget, that a market would be created for over consumption of fuel.
So, pardon my french, but what the hell is going on here?
Two more headlines to consider:
CNN.com: Oil Demand Drops, But Don’t Expect Crude Prices To Fall
And then, probably the most important headline of all of them in today’s post:
USAToday.com: Devaluation Of Dollar Influences Oil Price
In other words, our nation’s debt is causing our domestic inflation because our dollar can purchase less goods in the global market. Makes you just feel all peachy-keen wonderful about our nation borrowing money from China to pay for the war in Iraq, the economic stimulus and most recently the federal mortgage bailout bill. Shoring up the strength of our domestic economy, not trade from foreign nations, is the only way we can get our of this mess. Until then, enjoy paying $4 for gas and $5 for a loaf of bread.
Ayn Rand is correct in her objectivism, in my opinion. We should have never overextended ourselves so much that we have to rely on the taxpayers to bail out our governments New World Order agenda. It is truly a sad state of affairs that our Congressmen no longer represents the people who sent them to Washington…
Comment by Jana — 07.31.2008 @ 14:20:38