A week or so ago, just for fun I sent ExxonMobil an email about what assholes they are, and essentially asking how they live with themselves. Here’s a copy of the reply:
—===—===—
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your recent communication expressing concern about higher
prices for gasoline and energy products.
We recognize that energy price increases have put a strain on many
household budgets. We also know that some hold the oil and gas industry
directly responsible for these price increases and quite frankly, this
conclusion is not correct. There are several factors that are helpful to
consider as we look at what is causing higher gasoline and energy prices.
Crude Oil
Crude oil, the world’s foremost energy source – is a true global commodity,
traded freely in markets worldwide. Prices for crude oil, which now
account for well over 60 percent of the price Americans pay at the pump,
are set on competitive global markets. No single company sets the price
for crude oil or even influences how these prices are set. Even as the
largest private energy company in the world, ExxonMobil only represents 3
percent of global oil production. We also buy nearly two times more crude
oil than we produce, as we do not produce nearly enough crude oil to keep
our ExxonMobil refineries and plants supplied. Also, our crude oil supply
costs are higher partly due to the weaker value of the U.S. dollar.
Global Supply and Demand
The market forces of supply and demand are the fundamental factors that
influence crude oil prices. Growing demand for transportation fuels, in
developing nations like China and India alone have driven demand increases
at twice the historic average in several recent years. Americans drive
around 3 trillion miles per year, almost twice as much as we did in 1980
(1.5 trillion miles), now demanding about 400 million gallons of gasoline a
day. On the supply side, geopolitical developments have curtailed
production and driven up prices at various points in time.
Industry Earnings in Context
In a high commodity demand/price environment, which currently exists,
industry earnings will generally rise. However, the oil and gas industry
profits are comparable to other U.S. industries, 9.5 cents for every dollar
of sales compared to an average of 8.2 cents for all U.S. manufacturers in
2006. You also might find it interesting to know that 70 percent of
ExxonMobil revenues are generated outside the U.S. And, with respect to
the price you pay at your local service station, independently owned
operators set those retail prices in competition with one another.
ExxonMobil owns and operates less than 900 of the 170,000 service stations
in the United States; that is less than 1 percent.
Investing in Tomorrow’s Energy
In our view and probably your own as well, another important question is
what are we doing with the money we earn? In the past twenty years, we
have invested about $280 billion worldwide on capital and exploration
expenditures to develop new energy supplies — a figure that exceeds our
total earnings over that period.
Looking ahead, the International Energy Agency has estimated that the oil
and gas industry will need to invest at least $20 trillion in new oil and
gas production and infrastructure through 2030 to meet the future growth in
global demand. Much of this projected growth in energy use is attributable
to improving living standards for billions of people in the developing
world. Only profitable companies will be able to make the investments
needed to compete in global energy markets and to develop the energy
supplies we will need in the future.
Government Taxes
Stable and impartial tax and regulatory policies are critical to companies
looking to invest on the scale noted above. You most likely are not aware
that for every dollar of ExxonMobil’s revenue, on average around 25 cents
is paid to governments, while ExxonMobil earns just over a dime. In 2006,
ExxonMobil earned $39.5 billion, but paid over $100 billion in taxes
worldwide. Over the past five years (2002-2006), ExxonMobil’s U.S. tax
bill was nearly $60 billion, exceeding our total U.S. earnings during that
time by over $20 billion. Without question, we are one of the world’s
biggest taxpayers and are therefore very concerned about the harmful
impacts of current proposals to impose even higher taxes on our industry.
Our government can help meet America’s growing energy needs by ensuring
reliable and impartial rules for all energy investments that will allow
American companies to compete internally.
Your email is important to us. We know price increases and our company’s
earnings have raised questions and deserve explanation. While we hope that
this response provides you with a better understanding of our company’s
challenges and of the global energy markets in which we participate, we
would encourage you to look at our web site www.exxonmobil.com as well as
the web site of the American Petroleum Institute www.energytomorrow.org for
more information.
At ExxonMobil, we’re committed to pricing responsibly and investing for the
future. Please know that every day our 82,000 employees worldwide are
working extremely hard to provide energy supplies to consumers at
competitive prices.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us.
Sincerely,
Ashley Galbraith
Exxon Mobil Corporation
Note: When responding to this message, please use reply to keep the email
thread intact. We need to see the information on previous e-mails to
better assist you. Thank you.
If you’re a savvy investor, right now is a great time to buy real estate. Of course, the mainstream media would have you believe that real estate is a terrible market for everyone right now, but the fact is that there are some great opportunities out there for the right investor.
One great chance for smaller investors to own shares in a big institutional piece of property is known as “Tenant In Common” or TIC. According to Cardéa Real Estate and Asset Advisors, “In a TIC investment, each investor owns a ‘fractional, undivided interest’ (a portion) of a real estate asset.” This means that smaller investors can team up with other smaller investors in order to own a small piece of a much bigger pie.
With tic property, there are some different rules than with regular real estate, but they also offer some of the same advantages. One advantage is that you can do a 1031 exchange into a TIC property. This is a great way to shelter your real estate profits from taxes while rolling them over into a viable new investment.
TIC investments typically provide a positive cash flow, and when TICs gain value, you profit. Of course, there are no guarantees that you will profit, but history dictates that there’s a pretty good chance of it.
TICs are sold by registered securities dealers to accredited investors, so bear in mind that you need to meet certain criteria to invest in them.
There’s no way that you haven’t heard about what a problem identity theft has become if you pay attention to anything you hear in the news. Granted, most of the news is a lie, or at least a partial lie, but identity theft really is a growing problem. In fact, according to ConsumerAffairs.com:
For the seventh year in a row, identity theft tops the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint list, accounting for 36 percent of the 674,354 complaints received between January 1 and December 31, 2006.
That statistic certainly scares me. In fact, I have been the victim of attempted bank fraud, so it really can happen to anyone. If you want to be protected from identity theft, you need to take matters into your own hands, rather than relying on your financial institutions to do it for you. I have been lucky, and the two times that someone tried to steal my financial info were quickly thwarted by my financial institutions, but who know if they’ll be so quick next time.
You have most likely also heard of LifeLock. I’m sure you have heard those commercials on the radio with Todd Davis, the CEO of lifelock, sharing his Social Security Number with the world. If he’s that confident in his product, I feel pretty safe saying that I am too.
So, here we are in this nonrecession, many of us stuck with a dead-end salary, if we even have a job at all. The state of California is damn near broke, along with other state and local governments. But do you ever wonder where all the money from a few years back went? Isn’t that the idea, that money circulates? Well if it circulates, where in the hell is it?
I have your solution, sadly. It’s in the pockets of war profiteers and corporations. Sure, they say they don’t have any money so they don’t have to pay any taxes, or move it to a foreign country, but it’s there. The money still exists, just not where it should be.
This, my friends, is known as pure despicable greed. If you want to let our presidential candidates know how you feel about this financial scam, check out the video below, then visit WarOnGreed.com and sign their petition.
If you have some dings on your credit, you probably know how difficult it is to get a loan, or even just a credit card. These days, banks are hurting so badly over the sub-prime meltdown that they are tightening their lending requirements to ridiculous levels.
If you are in this situation and need a loan but can’t get one, check out BadCreditOffers.com. It’s a great resource for bad credit credit cards and other loans for people with bad credit. Oh, and it’s a free resource, so can you really go wrong?
You may recall a few days ago that I mentioned that we got absolutely jacked on our income taxes this year. You may also recall that I jokingly asked if I should just make my check out to Halliburton directly. It turns out that statement isn’t too far from the truth. Check this out:
A 2004 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that 61% of American corporations, including 39% of large companies, paid no corporate income taxes between 1996 and 2000. Last year, corporations shouldered just 14.4% of the total U.S. tax burden, compared with about 50% in 1940.
The above quote is taken from an article in Parade Magazine entitled “Are You Paying For Corporate Fat Cats?” It puts out some pretty interesting information about the income tax shelters that modern corporations enjoy, and the loopholes that allow some of them to pay no tax at all.
Sneaky tax tricks that corporations pull, like Halliburton moving its CEO to Dubai, are the reason that the tax burden has shifted so significantly. And the loopholes that allow these tricks seem to keep expanding as the tax breaks for the average Joe keep decreasing.
Hopefully whomever takes over in January will take a good long look at this situation, although I’m not holding my breath.
For the first time in my fifteen-plus years of tax filing, my wife and I actually owe money this year. And a lot of it. Granted it was due to a significant increase in our take-home pay, for which I am of course thankful, but writing those big checks out to the United States Treasury still hurts like hell, especially when I know this money is only going to be used to pay the interest on our national debt.
If I didn’t know that, I think I would probably make my check out to Halliburton directly. Might as well cut out the middle man, right?
There is no way that this can continue and still maintain a competitive US economy. Or any US economy for that matter. Citizens simply can’t afford to pay more for gas when they don’t have a job. And don’t even get me started on how the hell these people will be able to afford to pay their mortgages.
I’ll admit, I am all for corporations making money. That’s what they’re meant to do. But when it comes to having to lay off employees to stay in the black, that is some bullshit, especially in times like these. There’s no way this trend can continue without turning into financial ruin for the country.
I’m going a little off topic here, but this is something that has been on my mind a lot lately and I thought it would be worth blogging about. It’s about finding your passion and making a living at it.
As many of you know, my full time job is as a web designer and tech support guy. It’s an interesting job, and I don’t hate getting out of bed in the morning to go to work. I have been around computers since I was five, and I’m completely comfortable working with them. I am also patient to a fault, and have no problem spending insane amounts of time explaining to people exactly what I’m doing or how to do what they need to do with their computers. So it’s a good match for me as a career choice. But it is not my passion.
I have a few things that I am passionate about. The most important is my marriage. I am passionate about making my marriage a happy one, and making it work for the long term. It’s my main priority on life. Obviously that’s not an option as a career, so let’s move on to the next one.
My second passion is Halloween. I love visiting and creating haunted houses (both man made and naturally occuring…if that makes any sense). I love the technology that goes into all the stuff back stage. I love the creepy environments that can be created with just some fog, lighting, props, and a few good actors. I love imagining the next great prop, and spending time figuring out how to accomplish the effect that I desire. Most importantly, I love the guests’ reactions – the screams, gasps, and laughs that a good haunt elicits are a wonderful reward for the hard work that goes into the production. If I had the means, that would be my full time job.
Another passion of mine is disseminating important information. I have a passionate distaste for the way that the mainstream media chooses to hide and skew information that people need to understand their world. I feel that if I can get even a fraction of that information out to a fraction of the population, I will have accomplished something, and made the world at least a slightly better place. Currently I accomplish this with this blog, but would love to have the resources to truly disseminate information on a larger scale.
My last passion, and probably the key to solving this riddle, is real estate. I love the thrill of finding a deal. I like to think I’m pretty good at dealing with people. And I love the opportunity for lifelong passive income that real estate investing can provide. It’s just a matter of breaking into the field and making it work for me on my terms.
It sounds to me like I have this puzzle figured out, but need to put the wheels in motion. I need to get off the couch and just do it. But think about it yourself. What’s your passion, and how can you make it your life?
A few months ago, I took my car to EZ Lube. They got me to spend about $200 on a radiator flush, oil change, and tranny fluid flush. After seeing this video, I’m wondering where in the hell my money went. I’m also VERY interested in finding out why in the fuck my “check engine” light comes on intermittently after my trip to EZ Lube and never did before. Makes a person wonder, doesn’t it?
