Reason echoes my sentiments regarding the oil industry profits, here. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard very many level-headed responses to the accusations on mainstream media, which probably explains my disdain for same. I am particularly fond of this quote, from the Steven Pearlstein’s Washington Post article which supports my claim that the hearing was all pomp & circumstance:
Some lawmakers who did not take part in the hearing agree. “It’s all about making speeches and issuing talking points,” said Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.). “No tax increase will get out of this Congress.”
Pearlstein rightly concludes that Oil companies have opposed increased oil taxes because they decrease marginal profits. That much is true, but I’m not sure what he was trying to imply. All the altruism in the world will not provide us with oil, Mr. Pearlstein.Cafe Hayek drums up an old op-ed piece from the WSJ, which supports my rebuttal to Pearlstein’s above cited Washington Post article, in an e-mail I wrote earlier today:
[Y]ou unknowingly hit the nail on the head with your conlcusion, – reduced sales and profit margins are precisely the reason why oil companies oppose taxes on oil. Reduced income is precisely the reason why I oppose an increased income tax. It is why the farmer fears an increase in his property tax, or the baker abhorrs a tax on flour. An increased rate of taxation decreases a firms overall solvency, reducing its ability to borrow from banks, reducing its stock performance and consequently its available capital to invest in new technologies, or in augmenting current technologies, which reduces its ability to plan for the future – yes, that’s why oil companies have opposed these taxes
His answer, instead, is to raise the gas tax, and use the increased revenue (arguably in a responsible manner) to offset other taxes burdening the populace, in some sort of revenue-neutral tax ponzi-scheme. I could go on about that, but I’ll refrain.
In other news, the Shocker goes mainstream. I would like to credit Jeff Buelow for introducing the concept of the shocker to my high-school football team, in 1994.
Among my other favorite twenty-something words: grundle. Leave a comment with your favorite word that wouldn’t be understood by anyone over 30.
