quote:Originally posted by Chuck:
Jrlz: Profit IS good, but oil companies are a little "over the top" (Exxon $47 BILLION in profit while we pay $3.75 a gallon). High gas prices is why many Americans buy Korean and Japanese autos. And FWIW, I never sold any devices to oil companies.
Chuck, that is a very Socialist answer. Are you suggesting that the Government should step in and dictate what a "reasonable" profit should be? If you were a stock holder of Exxon, you wouldn't be too pleased with that. Let' change the equation to percentage of profit. What percentage of profit is reasonable? Is 10%? Is 15%? According to Wikipedia, Exxon's revenue in 2011 was $486 Billion and their net profit was $41 Billion which makes their profit percentage a little over 8%. Take away ALL their profits and the price of gas goes down about $0.30/gallon (8% of $3.75/gallon). That doesn't seem extravegant to me no matter what we pay for gas. But, of course you take away the profit and Exxon might just go away. Then where would we be hmmm? By the way, the average tax on a gallon of gas is $0.489/gallon.