Lots to speak of today...

Today's tidbits come from my reading of the articles at Fox News:

1. Apparently the major oil companies are taking heat from Democrat congressmen because they had $100B in profits last year. What they're not telling you is that Government made $440B in (plundered) profits from Big Oil last year. ExxonMobil alone is reported to have paid more in taxes than the lower half of all individual income earners last year. Who's the bad guy here? Remember that Thomas Sowell quote I included yesterday?
   
   
2. A Madison, WI high school student is suing the Tomah School District because he refused to remove religious references from a project he turned in and earned a zero. I hope he wins big on this one. If the government schools want to separate church and state, then they have to keep antitheism out too.
   
   
3. A related story alludes to a less than 50% graduation rate in a large number of the largest US cities. The problem here is two-fold: lack of teaching of personal responsibility AND failure of our school systems to be much more than indoctrination centers.
   
   
4. Yeah, gas prices are up and the economy's cooling down right now, but are we really in a recession or depression as the lamestream media want everyone to believe? Economic conditions were actually worse in 2000 near the end of the Clinton Administration, but you never heard a blurb about the economy being so bad. Couldn't possibly be that we had a Democrat president at the time and have a GOP president now, could it? Couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that the US sheeple believe everything they hear in the press and the media are leveraging that in an election year, could it? The single-largest factor in the cause of any possible recession or depression right now is the media reporting.
   

Wow... I really thought I had more than that. Sorry.

Quotes for today...

Folks... I found a great political cartoon site today called Red Planet Cartoons. Do yourself a favor and visit.

While I was there, I picked up a couple quotes of value. First by Thomas Sowell:

Nothing is easier, or more emotionally satisfying, than blaming high prices on those who charge them, rather than on those who cause them.

This was said, of course, in reference to everyone's blaming of high gas prices on the greed of the oil companies rather than government interference and taxes. Nevermind that the oil companies make about 9 cents per gallon and government takes around 42.

And this one from our greatest President, Ronald Reagan:

Republicans believe every day is July 4th. Democrats believe every day is April 15th.

The reference here should be obvious.

Once again the Democrats are forcing the costs of their political aspirations upon us

The Democrats are at it again, trying to buy votes on the wave of financial ignorance fostered by the US sheeple. The Democrat Party has its panties in a bunch that oil companies "raked in record profits" last year. Well, we all know what that means, don't we? It's time to plunder! After all, the only way Democrats can make a career out of their political aspirations is to buy votes from those too stupid or apathetic to be responsible for themselves. So, the Democrat-controlled House passes some $18B in taxes on those profits.

Profits alone don't show the entire financial picture. Of more importance to the big picture are the profit margins. But it's difficult to make myrmidons that vote Democrat understand that. So let me explain:

Profit = gross revenue - business costs

Profit margin = profit/gross revenue * 100%

So, let's have a short exercise, shall we?

Let's say Poxblog Oil Co had gross revenues of $1M in 2007. Poxblog Oil's business costs (what they spent to bring in that megabuck) was $900,000.

2007 profit = $1,000,000 - $900,000 = $100,000

2007 profit margin = $100,000 / $1,000,000 * 100% = 10%

Now, let's say that Poxblog Oil sold twice as much in 2008. That means that their total gross revenue was $2M. Let's also say that it also cost them twice as much to make that revenue, or $1,800,000. That leaves them with $200,000 profit.

Holy shit! Profits have doubled. Time to plunder/levy taxes/buy votes!

But wait. Poxblog's 2008 profit margin is $200,000 / $2,000,000 * 100%, or... wait for it... 10%. Somehow, profits have doubled, but profit margins haven't changed.

2008 profit = $2,000,000 - $1,800,000 = $200,000

2008 profit margin = $200,000 / $2,000,000 * 100% = 10%

From Neal Boortz in 2005:

When they read that oil company profits have gone up they have no educational basis upon which to balance the fact that oil company revenues have also gone up... thanks to the increase in the price of crude oil. Revenues go up. Profits go up. It's not really that hard to understand.

Someone will now come along and point out that the oil company profit margins have been rising along with the profits themselves. They're right. You see, costs don't necessarily double when revenues do. There are some costs that remain fixed even when the prices for raw materials (crude oil) increase. This will mean that profit margins will also increase, though not anywhere near as much as profits themselves. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Hardly. Just where do you think the energy companies, including the oil companies, get the money they need to explore for new sources of oil, to build new refineries, and to conduct research on additional or alternate energy sources? That money comes from profits. If profits increase due to high demand met by a scarcity of product the oil companies will be in a position to use increased profits to expand production and to search for new sources of oil. If the government seizes these profits, as suggested by Hillary Clinton, then those dollars would not be available for energy company investments into expanding our energy resources.

Another source of funds for oil companies to use for exploration and the development of additional energy resources would be the money that comes from investors. These investors purchase shares of stock in oil companies because they believe that their investments will appreciate in value and, in some cases, will pay dividends. If the government bows to the paranoia and anti-capitalist ignorance of the state-educated masses and seizes those profits, what then will be the reason to invest in these oil companies?

Hitting the high achievers the hardest slows down the momentum of our economy right at it's very foundation.

These taxes will be passed on the customer, just like they are every time. And it will hurt the low-income people the most... you know... the very people that Democrats purport to protect?

These are SIMPLE, straightforward concepts. Regardless, I'm sure that your average Democrat couldn't explain them. Nor would they care too, because it's they who are screaming the loudest that profits are up. It's these people legislating to make a moneygrab. It's these people forcing YOU to pay for their political careers! And yet somehow this is less evil than groups of people working hard and having it pay off.

Hilarious... but not really

Sitting here on my day off getting some chores done, I had to stop and watch a bit on Cavuto where a Democrat strategist was on with two economists (sorry, I don't remember any of their names) and Neil discussing Obama's and Hillary's budget plans. It wasn't pretty... kind of like a lamb going to the slaughter; the economists had a field day.

Folks, I'm not kidding when I say this: The Democrats want nothing more than to expand the entitlement state in order to buy more votes for themselves. Remember what I quoted a couple months ago about the the stability of great nations and the people voting themselves money out of the public largess? We're seeing that played out now.

I have a great plan with which we can put a real quick stop to this bullshit. Since the existence of government is borne by those who fund it, is it not fair that the weight of the vote of each constituent is proportional to how much each taxpayer pays in? What a way to keep checks on government thuggery! If someone wants to tax high-achievers disproportionately, then the high-achievers have a strong defense against it. After all, they're paying more for it.

Hell, this plan may even bring more money into the government in the form of donations from people wanting more say. It might even motivate lower achievers into achieving more. My goodness, coupled with the FairTax, this plan could super-energize the economy.

With the entitlement-based attitude most people have now, this will never happen.

Obama's college tuition support plan

A classic Democrat lack of economic understand here: Barack Obama's plan would give each of our 16M college students $4K per year. That's $64B per year. For those of you with government educations, on average that equates to $300 additional annual burden per taxpayer. That's not even including some ridiculous health care scheme. Hillary was right... those Democrats are going to take things from us: our money. And they wonder why the middle class is struggling (we're going to revisit this one shortly).

The catch? Those receiving the stipend would have to join AmeriCorps. You remember AmeriCorps, don't you? That wonderful invention by Bill Clinton that ended up a corrupt, bloated, wasteful failure. In 2003, it was reported that AmeriCorps violated federal law by hiring more people than they were authorized to, and they spent more money than they were allowed by law. Once again, government can't do things right. And Obama wants to make it bigger. Brilliant.