$4,000.00 per second paid in taxes by "Big Oil"

As Reagan said "... government IS the problem". Also, we need to remember that Jimmie Carter's "windfall profits tax" resulted in less production, not lower prices - a big part of the reason the US imports 70% of our oil today.

Today in Investor's Business Daily stock analysis and business news:
"On July 31, Exxon Mobil reported an $11.7 billion second-quarter profit, breaking the record for a U.S. company that it previously set.

Naturally, politicians and the public, provoked by a financially ignorant media, reacted as if the company had stolen the money.

Barack Obama called the earnings 'outrageous.'
. . .
Too often, business leaders choose to duck when the arrows of outrage come flying. But Exxon Mobil CEO and Chairman Rex Tillerson made an unusual and courageous stand Wednesday, appearing on ABC's "World News" with Charles Gibson.

"I saw someone characterize our profits the other day in terms of $1,400 in profit per second," Tillerson told Gibson.

"Well, they also need to understand we paid $4,000 a second in taxes, and we spent $15,000 a second in cost. We spend $1 billion a day just running our business. So this is a business where large numbers are just characteristic of it."

We can't think of anyone who would be willing to pay $4,000 in taxes for every $5,400 they earn in salary or wages. Yet many in our country believe it's OK, even desirable, for oil companies to do just that.

What's needed here is a bit more perspective, a sense of proportion. Though Exxon Mobil set a record for nominal profit, the oil industry isn't actually making the biggest profits.

In the first quarter of this year, the profit margin for oil companies was 7.4%. That trailed the electronic equipment industry (12.1%) and the pharmaceutical and medical industry (25.9%).

Last year, 63 industrial groups posted bigger profit margins than the oil industry.

Also obscured by the moaning over Exxon Mobil's profit is the fact that investors expected higher earnings from the company. After second-quarter profit was announced, the company's stock price fell almost 5% because of its disappointing performance.
. . . .
And with more than half of all Americans owning stock, that means millions are poorer when Exxon Mobil shares fall."