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Exxon Mobil Does It Again - Take Note

January 30th 2009 19:40
The media reports are loaded with headlines screaming about Exxon Mobil's $45.2 BILLION in profits for calendar 2008. But, as reported here before, that is not the entire story.

In calendar 2008, Exxon Mobil paid a total of $116.3 BILLION in taxes. In other words, for every dollar in profits they paid almost three dollars in tax. That's roughly a 70% tax rate. But the politicians will yell about "obscene" profits and call for a windfall profits tax.


Look at it this way: Exxon Mobil collected $477.4 BILLION in revenue, so their profit was 9.4% for the year. Companies like Microsoft and Google earn more than double that. Why isn't there a call for "windfall profits taxes" on those companies?

This is all political posturing. We should understand that company profits are paid to shareholders - the pension funds and retirement accounts of all Americans. It's more important that political resources be put into national security and not into talking about what companies should or shouldn't be earning.
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GM Gets Billion$; Lays Off Thousands

January 26th 2009 18:32
So, after going to Congress twice for a bailout and being approved for $13.4 BILLION taxpayer dollars, GM today announced that it will lay off 2,000 workers and halt production in several plants for weeks.

GM factory workers who get laid off typically get "sub pay," in which they receive unemployment benefits, and GM pays the difference, up to most of their salary, for 48 weeks.

After unemployment pay runs out, the laid-off workers would go into the jobs bank, where the company pays laid-off workers most of their pay and benefits while trying to find them jobs elsewhere.


Of course, GM is still required to report to Congress with a "viable" business plan on February 17th, but the question must be asked why the company gets to double-dip. If they are getting taxpayer dollars to keep running, why should taxpayers have to pay additional dollars for the unemployment and other benefits of GMs laid off employees? Shouldn't those costs be paid by GM out of the bailout they are receiving? And what about the economic consequences to the communities where GM is closing plants and reducing payroll? Will taxpayers be burdened with those costs, too?

It seems to me that the "trend" toward Socialism is becoming a slippery slope: As more company bailouts turn into "restructuring" including layoffs, the economic impact will be magnified, resulting in more calls for bailouts, etc. The government becomes not only the employer of last resort, but the investor of last resort, and the manager of last resort. The problem is that Congress has proven it cannot manage anything without tossing in a heaping handful of politics and pork-barrel priorities. So, will these bailouts really prove beneficial to the country? Doubtful.
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General Motors' New Re-structure

June 3rd 2008 21:56
Earlier today GM announced that it would close four plants in a move toward making smaller cars and fewer trucks and SUVs.

The US auto industry has been challenged more than any other by a combination of forces: International competition, environmental regulations, labor union costs and benefits, and shifting consumer preferences. Now the high price of gasoline is adding to the burden of the automakers.

GM and Ford once had tried to make smaller cars in the US. After the second oil embargo Americans started calling for smaller, more efficient cars. However, once the cars were designed, tested, developed and produced, the fickle American consumer had changed priorities and it was Chrysler who had the vehicle with greatest demand: the minivan. The small cars rusted unsold and everyone went back to making larger (and larger) cars.

It's a shame that GM didn't take this opportunity to decide to make all their cars FFV (flex-fueled vehicle) and thereby prepare for a future with alternative fuel options. For more information about FFV and a plan for energy independence, see the Set America Free Coalition's website.

In the meantime, be prepared for a string of news reports about unemployed auto workers being re-trained for jobs that pay a fraction of what they were making, as well as about ghost towns left after GM closed the plants. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to move an LCD factory from Malasia or Singapore into one of the shuttered plants and to re-hire all that motivated labor? Yeah, wishful thinking.
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