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#273774 - 06/29/08 09:51 AM
Re: The Gas Price Update
[Re: stone]
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experienced member
Registered: 09/29/05
Loc: Damn close to EVERYWHERE!
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I am profoundly troubled by the support for what amounts to governmental theft from private business. I'm equally troubled by people who justify the detrimental actions of multinational corporations that affect the very well being of our nation. The oil industry isn't a private business. It's a very public business, one of which that has exceptional influence over our day to day lives. Therefore, it shouldn't be treated with the kid gloves that you'd like it to be. That said, I don't believe a windfall tax would work as we'd just end up paying for it at the pump. I also don't believe that they should be allowed to carry on in the fashion that they have. You're right, Stone. I didn't think of that, although it makes perfect sense. If we don't want to see a tax on windfall profits, then shouldn't the multinationals -- and in this case, the petroleum companies -- be forced to give up their subsidies and tax breaks? I mean, that's just like welfare for the rich, isn't it? Just depends on which side of the fence one is sitting, eh? They've pissed and moaned for decades about how the poor have bled them, but they've depended on the poor and middle income folks far more than most of us realize, and it's time to shine the light on how things really are. If they shouldn't carry on as they have, what would be your solution?
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WindDancer
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#273842 - 06/29/08 09:08 PM
Re: The Gas Price Update
[Re: Lawmage]
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Administrator
Registered: 08/01/99
Loc: New York, NY (New York)
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I am all for eliminating the tax breaks and the subsidies...I am just worried about the knee jerk reaction calling for "taxes on these windfall profits." There is something profoundly suspect about such a move. It says, damn near explicitly, that you can only make so much profit...anymore than that and the government will come in and take it away from you. This then raises the issue of how much profit is "too much?" What is going to trigger this governmental theft? Perhaps if Winddancer gets a bonus at work the government will step in and take it from her because its a windfall? On the other hand, if the windfall profit is made because the companies gouged, or colluded to fix prices, or bribed some Senator for special favors from his committee, etc. then a punitive tax on that profit, perhaps in the form of a fine, as well as criminal charges, would be apt. There is such a thing as unconscionable profits, not measured by size, but by how earned.
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