How can this company be making billions in profit and ...

[nurdlinger]

I recently drove from Tucson to SE Missouri and back again. I listened to right-wing talk radio for a lot of the journey. One point that I heard that seems to be correct is that the profit margins enjoyed by oil companies have not seen large increases, but that the quantity of product sold has. Since the profit is the (mathematical) product of the margin times the quantity, the fact that record levels have been attained does not necessarily mean that anyone was overcharged or gouged. I am fairly disinterested in economics or business, but this seems plausible to me. Does anyone know anything supporting or refuting the position?

 

[hydralique]

To make sense of this one must have a timeline, and I don't mean a burp-o-lator! Oil company profits may not have increased greatly over the last few months, but most reports over the past several years say that they've been doing very well indeed. It's really difficult to figure all of this out objectively because everyone wants to give it their slant, and you must have a reference level to compare profits to.

My only position is that they don't deserve big tax breaks just because their profits fluctuate every few years. My business goes through cycles as well, and it can be very tough on me, but I don't expect the government to help out.