Hypocrisy 101

[unixronin]

''There ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud."

-- President George W. Bush, September 1, 2005, on national TV

How about starting with your buddies in the oil industry, you hypocrite?

[...] A month ago, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips announced record second-quarter profits of $7.6 billion, $3.7 billion, and $3.1 billion, respectively.  Royal Dutch Shell's quarterly profits of $5.2 billion were up by 34 percent over the same period last year.  Other well-known companies like Sunoco also had record second-quarter earnings.

(While whining bitterly about rising crude-oil costs. -- unixronin)

[...]

Everyone knows that Bush does not really mean what he says about price-gouging at the pump, since he just gave energy companies the bulk of $14.5 billion in tax breaks in the new energy bill.  Surprise, surprise.  In Bush's two elections, oil and gas companies gave Republicans 79 percent of their $61.5 million in campaign contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

If Bush really meant what he said, he would call for a freeze or cap on gasoline prices, especially in the regions affected most dramatically by Katrina.  He would challenge big oil to come up with a much more meaningful contribution to relief efforts.

Insurance companies are expecting up to $25 billion in claims from Katrina.  For ExxonMobil, which is headed to $30 billion in profits, to jack up prices at the pump and then only throw $2 million at relief efforts is unconscionable.

-- Derrick Z. Jackson, September 2, 2005, Boston Globe

(Boston Globe cartoon link retroactively snagged from yndy)

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

That would actually be a crappy idea. Price caps lead to shortages.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

If it's capped below cost, sure.
If the cap is set to allow a reasonable profit, what do you think the oil companies are gonna choose to do -- sell gasoline at half their usual profit margin, or sell no oil?

Personally, I agree a retail price cap would be a bad idea. But I see no problems with setting a profit-margin cap. And if the bastards still choose to just sit on the fuel instead of shipping it, throw their asses in jail.

Oh, wait, I forgot ... this is government of the people, by the elite, for the rich.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

What? Are you advocating jailing people for not giving up their private property at a price you deem "fair"?

Good GOD man. Listen to what you're saying, and who you sound like.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Nope. Not at all.

I'm advocating jailing people for unrepentant profiteering, if they choose to, effectively, hold people to ransom for a necessary resource for which no currently mass-viable substitute exists and which they're in business to provide in the first place, rather than comply with a directive telling them, not to take a loss or even to sell at cost, but just to accept a lower profit margin on, not permanently, but just for the duration of an emergency.

Is that really so much to ask of the richest corporations on the goddamn planet, in the face of a massive natural disaster in the country most of them call home?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and I forgot to add "and upon which they hold a collective monopoly."

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Do I think it would be really nice of them to help out here, instead of being unmitigated bastards? Hell yes. Do I think that people would be well within their rights to shun them and their children if they don't help out? Hell yes. Do I want to se the legal precedent that "Emergency situations" justify that sort of socialistic control of private enterprise "for the duration"? Fuck no.

I understand what you're saying, but I do not want to go any farther down that slope.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

OK, I see your point.

I'm not sure I see it as socialistic, though. Or at any rate, not in a bad way. I think those who live in and benefit from a society have a responsibility to support it when it needs support, just as they have as responsibility to defend it when it needs defense. And when some of them just look at a natural disaster as nothing more than an opportunity to rake in huge profits at the expense of people in desperate need, society as a whole needs to tar and feather the predatory bastards and ride'em out of town on a rail.

I freely concede jail's not necessarily the best way to achieve that end.

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

Hey - haven't I been preachiing (for months too - not just recently} that these bastards have gouging the public like no tomorrow?

Hate to say this ..but .."I told you so..."


Of course, you were one of the few who took me seriously