A Great Article by Ben Stein...
- Thread starter FromTexas
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Larry Gude
Strung Out
One thing he should not...
...bother doing is trying to convince people that oil companies are taking 'great risks'. When oil companies were small, yeah, there was great risk because smaller meant more vulnerable to competition. The giants we have now aren't in anywhere near the exposure or risk as in the past.
It's a great risk for Ma and Pa Dollar store to offer goods made only in China. Customers might balk. Maybe the quality won't be good. On the other hand it's a simple business decision for Walmart. They're not at as much risk.
Other than that, Stein makes a great analogy about the crucial importance of oil and the absurdity of it's critics.
FromTexas said:
...bother doing is trying to convince people that oil companies are taking 'great risks'. When oil companies were small, yeah, there was great risk because smaller meant more vulnerable to competition. The giants we have now aren't in anywhere near the exposure or risk as in the past.
It's a great risk for Ma and Pa Dollar store to offer goods made only in China. Customers might balk. Maybe the quality won't be good. On the other hand it's a simple business decision for Walmart. They're not at as much risk.
Other than that, Stein makes a great analogy about the crucial importance of oil and the absurdity of it's critics.
FromTexas
This Space for Rent
I think he was referring more to the political instability (violence) related risks of many of the oil projects. It may not effect the executives in the United States or the dollars, but it does effect the workers who have to work in those environments with political instability and violence.
Also, political situations have had them lose billions in recent years as countries like Venezuela and Russia have either out right taken over their oil platforms, wells, and other projects or made them sell their stakes in them to their own preferred groups such as state oil companies.
While the impact is nothing to their bottom line these past 3-4 years, those risks translated into real losses in many other years. Heck, the 1970s through the 1980s really sucked for them for the most part.
Now they have the political risk of the folks like Hillary Clinton saying that since they made a profit, she will reclaim it and use it to pay for alternative fuel. Can we just put a bullet in the memory of Milton Friedman now? He has only been dead a few months, so its a fresh kill.
Also, political situations have had them lose billions in recent years as countries like Venezuela and Russia have either out right taken over their oil platforms, wells, and other projects or made them sell their stakes in them to their own preferred groups such as state oil companies.
While the impact is nothing to their bottom line these past 3-4 years, those risks translated into real losses in many other years. Heck, the 1970s through the 1980s really sucked for them for the most part.
Now they have the political risk of the folks like Hillary Clinton saying that since they made a profit, she will reclaim it and use it to pay for alternative fuel. Can we just put a bullet in the memory of Milton Friedman now? He has only been dead a few months, so its a fresh kill.
itsbob
I bowl overhand
Larry Gude
Strung Out
Again...
...building sympathy for oil companies is a waste of time. Any dime Hillary takes is coming from you and me. Simply based on their size, it won't matter. Same thing for overseas pressures. And as far as the 70's and 80's go, we've had so much global consolidation, we're hardly talking about the same industry anymore.
They'll be fine if they just stick to how important their product is.
FromTexas said:
...building sympathy for oil companies is a waste of time. Any dime Hillary takes is coming from you and me. Simply based on their size, it won't matter. Same thing for overseas pressures. And as far as the 70's and 80's go, we've had so much global consolidation, we're hardly talking about the same industry anymore.
They'll be fine if they just stick to how important their product is.
FromTexas
This Space for Rent
Larry Gude said:
I'll agree to that. I just think there needs to be a seperate message from the oil industry or any other industry message; one of the destruction of captalism and the resulting impacts to consumer costs (i.e. health care), etc...
10% of businesses acting in unethical ways does not mean 100% of business should be considered the enemy.