Somebody needs to tell the American Petroleum Institute, AND the executives of Big Oil, to just SHUT UP. Every time they open their moughts, they disgrace themselves wiith distrotions which indicate that they do NOT believe in free markets (which, for the most part, they don't).
See the entry late last week on Rush Limbaugh and conservatives repeating the propaganda (irrlevant to any real issue, and therefore, in effect, a lie) that retail gasoline stations don't make much money. (the money is benig made right now in the PRODUCTION and sale of crude, but the big, vertically integrated oil companies do that as well). The oil industry ads that I have heard contain huge distortions, and every time I hear Exxon executives talk, I cringe. They come across as what they are: arrogant bureaucrats who have built a corporate empire by MERGER (rather than by efficientcy in producing oil and gasoline).
Case in point: I happened to see a representative of the American Petroleum Institute on a panel discussion Chris Wallace had on his Sunday show. The DEMOCRAT on the show (Senator Dorgan, I believe), gave the usual leftists DISTORTIONS, including the leftist Democrat non sequitur that we can't "drill" ourselves out of our gasoline price problmems (irrelevant, even if true--which it may not be--since every barrel of oil we produce by drilling in the U.S. is one less barrel of oil we have to import or make up for with some sort of "althernative" energy).
But the American Petroleum Institute guy virtually destroyed the effect of DEMOCRAT stupidities (which were pretty effectively countered by Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a barely possible GOP nominee for Vice President) by incredible stupidities of his own. I BEG thes people from the oil industry: PLEASE SHUT UP. You embarrass yourself every time you open your mouths. Worse, you allow leftist Democrats to continue to get away with their own lies and distortions, and pretty much drown the free market argument in "big corporate speak" noise.
This guy from the American Petroleum Institute addressed those large Big Oil profits. Did he say that PROFITS are the engine by which a free market workds, and should attract more investment in BOTH oil and "alternative" energy? Don't be silly. Did I not just tell you that these people do NOT believe in free markets? This guy, instead, said (correctly) that the huge gross profit numbers of Big Oil were because of the SIZE of the companies. In other words, as I have correctly told you before, the TOTAL profits would be the SAME if they were divided among more companies. You just would not have a few HUGE corporate empires making such large per company profits. Instead, you would have perhaps 3 or 4 times the number of LARGE (but not HUGE) companies making lesser dollar profits PER COMPANY (but the same overall profits).
This oil guy, however, did not WANT to make THAT point, because it would mean admitting that Big Oil has been created by MERGERS (which should not have been allowed) of smaller (although still large) companies. Thus, Exxon, Mobil, Gulf, and several others used to be SEPARATE companies, instead of one oil GIANT. Therefore, this Big Oil propagandist suggested that Exxon/Mobil NEEDED to be that big to counter the "state" "oil companies" "competing" with the American companies. This is an outright LIE in the first place (Exxon was fully large enough before these mergers). In the second place, what this oil industry guy was directly saying was that he did NOT believe in a free market for oil and gasoline.
What is the DEFINING characteristic of these "state owned" oil companies that the oil industry spokesman was referring to? Right. They are MONOPOLIES. They are GOVERNMENT monopolies. This guy was saying that American companies needed to be part of the MONSTER oligarchy of these HUGE companies--granted monopolies in their own territory--so that the American companies could rise to the equivalent of these state run MONOPOLIES. You can't get any more obvious than that in showing contempt for free market theory.
What is worse? I should leave it as an exercise for the reader. But I will tell you. The LOGICAL conclusion of this "argument" (a bund of bull) is that we should do what leftist DEMOCRATS really want to do: create a GOVERNMENT run energy industry in the U.S. to counter these other government run "companies".
Is it true that you can only compete against socialist, government enterprises with the EQUIVALENT American type of enterprise (either government run, or run by merged, monster, corporate bureaucracies)? Nope. That is exactly the OPPOSITE of what history shows. History shows that central planning, and government run enterprises, eventually FAIL. History shows that true free markets WORK.
Open message to Big Oil: I BEG you. SHUT UP. You are killing me, and other people trying to fight for free market theory (few as we may be).
Open message to John McCain: I BEG you. SHUT UP. You are killing Republicans and conservatives every time you open your mouth. The DEMOCRAT on the Chris Wallace program kept quoting MCCAIN as his main argument. On this subject, McCain criticized the "obscene profits" of the oil companies, AND said that it was disgraceful that they are not investing more in alternative energy.
Thus, McCain directly said that HE does not believe in free market theory. See my previous entries where I explain that proftis are the ENGINE of free market theory, which creates a "proper" allocation of resources by the "invisible hand" of people seeking profit and satisfying demand. It is CENTRAL PLANNING, and NOT free enterprise, for the government to TELL oil copanies where they should invest. In a free market, if they do not invest in "alternative energy", some other companies will take advantage of teh opportunity to obtain PROFIT by doing so--IF those "alternative" energy sources are truly economically viable.
Deliver me. Most of our politicians do NOT believe in free market theory. Most of our big corporation people do NOT believe in free market theory. Our MEDIA and academia do not believe in free market theory (despite the CONCLUSIVE proof of history). It is enough to make you weep.
In any event I BEG you (John McCain AND oil industry people): PLEASE SHUT UP. Let Kay Bailey Hutchinson talk for you, or the (female) governor of Alaska.
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