Kangsoh: "how much is to much?" (In relation to profit)
My answer would be, when its bankrupting your country, raising unemployment to astonishing rates, driving the value of your dollar below the value of thepaper its printed on, and thus also contributing to the housing epidemic we are in, and so on.... Its a snow ball effect... Since gas/oil is the sole dependance of nearly every American, its also the one of the most significant driving forces in our economy... Its a huge cycle....

Lower gas = lower prices for food = more demand for other goods and services = need for jobs and thus lowers unemployment = less housing forclosure = more building of new houses = again more jobs and demand for not only jobs and goods such as wood....but again oil and gas ... Tada..... Profits still remain high for the oil companies because demand has still increased and the nice part is the price could have still stayed low to get there........

The thing is that no where in that chain can we break the cycle other than with fuel .....


Newb: Im totally with ya on the Americans having huge trucks/suv's etc and MOST do not need them..... Europeans have understood for a long time a scooter will generally cut the mustard in most cases and when it wont, they have a hampster with a stearing wheel as a car...... America is catching on (stobbornly) now... Decades to late.... I do however remember having a Datsun B210 when I was a kid in the early 80's.. It got like 400 miles to the gallon and fit 2.2 people in it comfortably... yet my folks fit the entire fam in there and gas was .69 cents a gallon... HAHA

Its true that we dont need most vehicles we drive... and for some that can afford a car payment (with out a job or house that they just lost) they can get a new hybrid or gas sippin car.. but sadly some are stuck with the gas sucker out of inability to afford a more gas friendly alternative yet... :cry:
I think by stating things like SUck it up, or stop going to Starbucks... is not quite the way to go about it... Though I do think extras like Starbucks or maybe even racing will have to go to maintain a budget with higher gas.... However, when you cut all that out and still can barely afford your pills for illness, or gas to get back to work to buy more gas.... Then what? What heppens when you have no "fat to trim" so to speak? We just say.. Sorry man... Better luck in 5 - 10 years when things get better ??? No Its just not that black and white in regards to just toughing it out..... Its the whole reason we have welfare, medicare, Social Security, Economic Simulus, Federal Reserve, and Politcians.... to fiddle and impliment a manual control over these things.... The sad part is (which was also stated earlier) Our government who is now also so dependant on tax revenue from fuel sales, they have tied their own hands from being able to fix the problem.... So they NEED gas and oil to sell and they need the price to be high, to receive the 30+ billion in tax revenue...... Our regulators that are in charge of equalizing all of these things, have unfortunately worked themselves out of their original purpose in the 1st dang place... :roll:

None the less..sorry for the long way around it.. but... I agree .. if you are able to own a more econimal and fuel efficient vehicle you should... Hell if you are able to cut it out completely and ride a bike or scooter..U should.....I myself traded in the ole 16 mph hwy truck for a 30+ mpg hwy cross over .... Its not a 60mpg Hybrid.. but it allowed me to save ~$180-200 a month in fuel costs (just shy of the payment cost, to lower my DEMAND for fuel, yet not lower my SUPPLY of income) and still had room enough to get me to the track..... (which has also suffered ... Though I didnt give it up, Ive been buget racing to the extreme... Pump gas instead of VP.. tires for more than 1 weekend instead of every weekend.. and dropping more than half the classes I raced.....) and when it gets to the point where that is no longer enough... I quit racing... but the end result will not be my unwillingness to do with out.. but more so the Oil tycoon who bought his 3rd Ferrari this year.... (and our pres who bombs people claiming "Weapons Mass Destruction" and only finds an ole AK in a cave we gave him 30 years ago ) but thats a whole different thread all together.. HAHA :wink:

Quote Originally Posted by newb
If you want to call a company terrorists, look at insurance companies. At least oil companies provide a tangible product. You can't stockpile insurance and they make just as much money. Insurance companies have yet to have a losing year and you are required to have insurance.
BUT Newb.... Most insurance companies only make 1-2% profit.... :wink:


cu260r6: What you eluded to (I think) is exactly right.. The reason profits ar 8% is becuase of costs being abnormally high, and paying the , as I stated before) Janitorial Tech 27 mill a year.. by that I mean exec salaries that are way out of line.... Do they need 400 million (making up a figure for dramatic emphasis)? NO... They can get paid 300 million and still own 7 houses and 3 Ferraris, and over the overall corse of the company end up with 9% profit and drop the price .50 cents the pump in the mean time...
The fact is when you read financial numbers of any company anymore.. U have to take them with a grain of salt... They CAN be mad to say anything they want.. or at minimum skewed to look a certain way.... Do you think that oil companies want the public to see them making 40% profit? No way... So they say 8% or make it look like 8% yet boost record levels....This way all of us Americans see that.. "Oh well they are makin less than Levi is on my jeans I just bought..... They arent screwing me over.... :roll: "

Sorry I know carrying it to far... but in the world we have become.. we have to understand .. alot of people get paid alot of money to make Wallstreet "THINK" a certain way....