Quote:
Originally Posted by solitude
The above is the single most ridiculous post ever on OKCTalk.
There are so many misleading statements it's obviously troll material or incredible stupidity. Profit "margins," when we're talking the kind of whole dollar amounts we're talking about, mean absolutely nothing.
Nobody - and I mean nobody - is capable of defending the Big Five oil profits in the second quarter of this year.
44 billion dollars --- in three months!
Exxon Mobil had a - after tax, and after Valdez penalties - profit of 11.97 billion dollars. In three months. Even the CEO had a hard time explaining that away, he just changed the subject to how much tax they paid. Well, yeah, you make that kind of money and you're going to pay high taxes. With 12 billion dollars in profits in three months - the tax is obviously ridiculously low. That profit is after tax, you know.
We were, as you remember paying over $4.00 a gallon on gasoline at the pumps during this time. Have you forgotten? So, we padded the pockets of the Big Five oil companies to the tune of $44,000,000,000.00 ---- in 90 days.
You can't defend that. Nobody in their right mind can defend that - or even try and keep a straight face.
I'm serious - single worst, most ridiculous, most offensive (do you think we're stupid?) post EVER on this board.
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Pure hyperbole, really. The single most ridiculous post ever? That's a mighty tall order for this BBS.
How much profit is too much profit?
While making record profits, dollar-wise, Exxon has also spent record amounts of money. Their profit margin is only 10% or so which is well below what many industries receive.
The Valdez penalties??? WTF? Sure, the court ruled
in maritime law that punitive damages of the magnitude of 100's to 1000's of times the amount of actual damages are excessive and unconstitutional. It was a good ruling. I'm sure some folks are upset that it benefited an oil company. At any rate, that's off topic, and federal common law, so it is really neither here nor there for most of us.