OIL PRICES-CONTINUED

Dennis said...

Read this article on who is really the big profiteer on oil

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/4/26/90121.shtml?s=ic

Oil is a world commodity and is traded on a global scale. The Oil companies do set the price at the pump, but that is AFTER it goes throught the commodities market, processing, distribution and whatnot. Then on top of that, the companies have to give back to the state the taxes they collected. At any given time, the markup on gas fluctuates between 5.5 to 8.5 in markup. (per Gallon) So the oil companies collect 5-8% and the Federal gets 18.5% and the states get between 23-46% per gallon, unless you live in New York and it is a percentage per dollar so there right now its probably 80 or so. So lets recap.....
Big Oil.....5-8 profit
Federal Govt.....18.5
State Govt.....23-46, except NY where it is double or triple the price. So after knowing this, who is gouging whom?

True the Government takes their cut, but still, the oil companies are passing on those taxes to the public, so its not the companies that are paying those taxes, its the American people. Still, the oil companies complain about distruption of productionn and cost, but they make record profits.

Say if these were grocery stores. If one had to mark up its prices due to its cost and the public felt those prices were too high, they would go somewhere else. Unfortunately, these companies are the only suppliers of oil because they bought out the competition. They can charge what they want because there isn't an alternative to go to.