There is a difference care. In one situation we are heavily reliant upon other countries (oil)... under the other we would have enough nat gas to meet our own demands and thus would not be reliant upon them at all.
There are NO "added profits" for the oil companies. Their margins are pretty much where they have always been. They are simply selling MORE oil than before due to higher demand. Not to mention all the stories about "record profits" normally fail to mention the fact of oil company consolidation. All the "record profits" are simply the same percentage on larger firms.
Side note: GE's profit margins are HIGHER than COP, XOM and Shell... yet no one bitches about their profits.... Why is that?
i don't believe you are correct on the profit MARGINS super, they have risen double digits since about 2000.... i am not talking profit dollars, but what percentage they are making in profit of their total sales....they have had record increases in their profit MARGINS, and profit dollars....read this a while back....
in 2000 they were averaging a profit margin of 6%, and today their profit margins are running around 10%....that's about a 65% increase in their profit MARGINS.....(in the shoe industry we planned anywhere between a 4%-6% profit margin)
their profits are not JUST COMING from sales of a higher priced product, but from also increasing the amount of profit they were getting from us, per dollar sold of that product....in fact and as said, they are making 65% more in profit on every dollar of sales today verses every dollar of sales in 2000....
so us consumers took a double hit....one with the prise rise in global oil and oil byproducts, and two-with the increased margin percentage they put on to us....
and hey....maybe 6% isn't good enough even though that really translates in to making about 12- 15 cents on every dollar invest by the company....they decided to TAKE MORE from us, the 10 cents on every retali dollar sold, translating to about 20-27 cents made on every dollar invested....depending on their initial mark up of their products.
i would loveeee to be able to make 12 to 15% interest on my money, let alone to make 20%-27% interest on my every dollar invested....!!!!
i know there are other industries that have even higher profit margins than they do, but they are few and far between or specialties, though other commodities have higher margins too....i realize such and it would probably be negligent of them if they didn't try to get as much in profit margin as they can, for their stock holders....i know that was one of our concerns when working for a Corp in the past....
it just "hurts more" when it is our fuel than when a Reebok does it or even a microsoft or a coke....
