Ben Stein on Oil Companies

[Shelton_Barrs]

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/yourlife/23426

[SilverFox]

If someone reads that and will continue to still bash the oil companies, then they are an idiot with no purpose, plain and simple!

[O.C White]

George,

don't read the article. You're an idiot but you have a purpose :-D

[Jimmy Biggs]

George,

You're an idiot but you have a purpose :-D

Carl you stumped me....... whats his purpose? :confused:

[O.C White]

FFW racers got to have someone to hate. :-D

[Jimmy Biggs]

FFW racers got to have someone to hate. :-D

He's great at that :smt044 :smt044 :smt044 :smt044 :smt044

[Shelton_Barrs]

FFW racers got to have someone to hate. :-D

Glad I got an F-body...lol

[George Klass]

I don't like people with F-bodies either.

PS: Whatsa F-body?

[Shelton_Barrs]

I don't like people with F-bodies either.

PS: Whatsa F-body?

That's ok George, I know you are an equal oppurtunity hater...lol I'm sure you don't like people with A-bodies, G-bodies, B-bodies,etc .....

Got a 87 Firebird that I have deluisions of actually finishing and racing this year....

[nos351]

Just for George.......

So where is the oil going to come from? ... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies,"
—Dick Cheney, 1999, while still CEO of the oil services company, Halliburton.

[George Klass]

Cheney is right, the mid eastern crude oil is the least expensive to produce these days. Who can blame the oil companies for getting this oil versus spending billions to get more of our own oil, from off shore fields or wherever? Not me, that's for sure.

What I hear from my oil patch friends at Getty and Tenneco in the Bakersfied area, it's not so much a shortage of oil as it is a shortage of the cheaper oil.

I made my living selling Contrl Data multi million dollar main frames to companies like Getty (in Los Angeles), Tenneco (in Houston) and Chevron (at the Elk Hills U.S. oil reserves) in the late 1970's and I still keep in touch with some of these people on a regular basis (most have retired or died). There is very little exploration in California these days, at least on land, and almost all of the production is into (and has been for some time) secondary recover at this point (the introduction of hot water or steam).

[nos351]

Have you talked to any of your oil friends about Chevez wanting to Nationalize the oil companies in Venezuela? Would be an interesting conversation I am sure.

[George Klass]

The words "Nationalized Oil Companies" are not words you would want to throw around, LOL. It is like using the word Amtrack with an old locomotive engineer with 35 years in the cab with the Southern Pacific or the Great Northern.

Mexico's oil is a government owned company of course, Pemex. I assume that the mid eastern oil is all government controlled also.

[George Klass]

As a stock holder, I hve no problems with the oil companies or their profits. As a tax payer, however, I have a big problem with their tax exemtions. The oil companies should not be considered to be on "welfare" status.

[nos351]

Here is one to maybe get something going.....Corporations should pay no tax.

[Shelton_Barrs]

Here is one to maybe get something going.....Corporations should pay no tax.

They don't really pay any taxes now...all passed on to the consumer as just another cost of business like insurance, raw materials, etc...

[nos351]

They don't really pay any taxes now...all passed on to the consumer as just another cost of business like insurance, raw materials, etc...

While I understand your premise.....its like saying a person dont really pay for food.....It is just another cost for staying alive and a person passes the cost on to his employer by demanding higher wages.

If a corporation paid no tax it would make that corporation more accountable to the share holders. The tax would still be paid, but paid by the shareholder(dividends,capital gains) at their individual rate.