High Oil Prices and the Parrots Squawking Loudly Again

So where ever I go lately I hear the politicians and media squawking. "Record profits, record profits! *squawk!"

Then, like the Marxists they are, they will go on to tell you how companies like Exxon-Mobile are making "obscene profits" due to the high prices of oil and maybe, just maybe they ought to pay some kind of extra tax as punishment for all the pain they're supposedly causing us.

So, let me get this straight. I should be mad at a company that has a big hand in making sure that when I go to that gas station, there's actually gas there? The fact that they still manage to do this, even with all the interference from government regulations and the wacko environmentalists to drilling anywhere?

Yes, they go on with their propaganda in an attempt to get everyone angry. Except they don't tell you how much money Exxon-Mobile is really making on a gallon of gasoline. Who wants to guess?

Two cents.

Yes, you read that right. Two cents per gallon. To put this in perspective, ask yourself, just how much does government profit per gallon of gas? It varies from state to state, with a bunch of states over 60 cents per gallon, but let me tell you right off: in every state, it's a hell of a lot more than 2 cents per gallon. The federal government alone confiscates 18.4 cents per gallon. And what exactly did they do to earn that 18.4 cents per gallon? Did they drill the well? Did they transport the oil to the refinery? Did they refine it? Did they transport it to your neighborhood filling station so it's there whenever you want it? Of course not. They just take their cut, like the mafia. So the federal government makes nine times more on a gallon of gasoline than Exxon-Mobile does. But we're supposed to get angry at the oil companies, right?

Oh, I can hear people screaming. "They use that money for the highways and roads!"

Wrong. That money doesn't go into some special fund for highways or roads. It goes into the general Treasury just like every other tax they come up with. The federal gas tax could be $10 a gallon, and they'd still piss all that money away on stupid social experiment programs like they do with all the other tax money. And still have to borrow and print more money on top of that.

Gasoline prices aren't high because you're getting ripped off by Exxon-Mobile, or because some mythical "speculator" is taking your money, gasoline prices are high because our currency is going to hell and supply is being choked off by things like Obama's oil drilling moratorium and wacko environmentalists in the EPA blocking drilling in places where there's actually oil.

Two cents per gallon is awfully close to zero cents per gallon. If that drops much lower the next time you go to fill up your car, there just might not be any gas for you to put in your car. At ANY price.