What I'd like to know is if oil per barrel is at $67 bucks or so, and the all time high was reached in '79 or '80 at about $80 per barrel, then how come we're not paying 90 cents per gallon like we did then? Oil is still cheaper than it was when the Middle East oil cartel squeezed us back in 1980, but we're paying 1.5 times as much. And of course, though oil profits, yes I'm talking profits (you know, the money they have left over after paying the overhead, wages, and benefits), the oild companies are saying that they had to increase cost due to higher oil prices. They say that the oil prices are higher because of supply and demand, and that the profits they make are unrelated.
There is some truth to the laws of supply and demand, and that the quantity of oil available for keeping us warm this winter will be less than in previous years. But those extra high profits should be funneled to the consumers, not the high-flying corporate heads and their cronies. Of course this is just my opinion.
In a world where the head of Disney gets 140 million bucks in severence pay, while the workers who run every machine, do the maintenance, and sell the merchandise get just enough salary to live from from paycheck to paycheck, how can we expect the owners of capitol to care on wit for the people who make them rich?
The following rules are not what I believe should be, but they are what my observations lead me to believe are the current laws of buisness.
Bob Flowers' first rule of buisness - Power protects power.
Bob Flowers' second rule of buisness - Power meats out the minimum amount of wealth possible to it's laborers to maximise profit and capitol for owners and the ruling board of directors.
Bob Flowers' third rule of power - give to the labor force just enough in wge and benefits to avoid prolonged strikes and all-out rebellion.
Bob Flowers' forth rule of power - the means jsutifies the end. The end is to maximise profits, at any cost.
Bob Flowers' fifth rule of power - Corporate wealth is all important, so much so that anything we do today is justified, wheter it harms us in the future or not, so long as it increases corporate wealth.
And there you have it. This is what I think the big-boys think and believe. I also believe that their strategy is working very well. Most people suffer too little to step up and rebell against the status quo. We have become a nation, a society of cattle, of wage-slaves. We do what we're told, when we're told, because if we don't, there is someone else who will. And we can't afford to give up our pay, or our cable TV that keeps us from meeting and interacting with each other.
Ya know, ya just shouldn't have gotten me started.
Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North