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Originally Posted by rocket
Define "subsidize," because if you are talking about tax breaks, who do you think ultimalty benifits from thoes? You and me. Both in lower prices at the pump (ALL taxes on ALL busnesses are passed to the consumer) and in higher stock values (any one own an IRA/401K/mutual fund that does NOT invest in energy?).
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Subsidies benefit the executives and investors. The only place subsidies make sense is where an emerging technology needs investment to build more infrastructure. The oil companies are not using that subsidy to build infrastructure (why would they? More infrastructure would just lower prices, and thus, profit), and they're certainly not passing it on to consumers.
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Originally Posted by rocket
Higher taxes lead to less money in low and middle-income families, both from paying at the pump and at retail stores.
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Too bad we didn't think about low and middle-income families before we started spending $300 billion a year in Iraq.
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Originally Posted by rocket
the top 10% of income earners pay 70% of the tax, so these "subsidies" are paid for by the rich (not that i'm for the current unfair tax system).
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The top 10% of income earners also rake in 48.5% of all "reported" income. Average yearly income increased for the top 10%, and decreased for the bottom 90%. And specific to gas taxes, the top 10% pay the same measly 4.6% federal gas tax as everyone else, but only pay more because they use much more, so I'm not crying for them.
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Originally Posted by rocket
In CT taxes are over $0.44/gal!! Oil companies on average make 8% on the sale of gas. Most retail stores have a markup of up to 40%!!
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Oil companies make 8% on the artificially inflated prices THEY created by shutting down refineries (especially in the 90's) to, according to internal memos from Texaco and others, increase profits.
I don't know what retail operations you're referring to that have a 40% profit margin, but Walmart's margin is 3.38%, and they haven't colluded with all other retailers to keep newcomers from opening new stores and artificially keep prices high.
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Originally Posted by rocket
The oil companies have huge profits because they produce a product that you and I desire, and we buy lots of it! Its called capitalism and it is what makes America GREAT!
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Really? I thought it was called an oligopoly, cronyism and anti-competitive behavior.
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Originally Posted by rocket
You are complaining about a "war over oil"?? what war? what county's producton have we taken over? what additional oil supplies do we have from OIF? NONE! You better educate yourself before posting
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You better educate yourself. One of the talking points when Bush was trying to sell us this war was that the "New Iraq(tm)" would be able to pay for the war and reconstruction using profits from its oil sales. Obviously that's not going to happen now.