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Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 412 -- Taxes On Energy Companies Are Too High.

Ridiculously Unjust Levels Of Taxation-

Hillary! Clinton wants to take oil company profits:

"The other day, the oil companies reported the highest profits in the history of the world. I want to take those profits..."

... and do all sorts of wonderful things with them.

Etc. Etc.

Okay.

Well. Typical.

But here's the truth:

While they were recording record profits last year, they were also writing checks to Uncle Sam to the tune of $100.7 billion -- two and a half times what they made in net profit. In fact, previous Tax Foundation research found that from 1977 to 2004, federal and state governments extracted $397 billion by taxing the profits of the largest oil companies and an additional $1.1 trillion in taxes at the pump. In today's dollars, that's $2.2 trillion.

Here's a visual of the profits and the taxes:

Another way to look at it:

This tax burden on American “big oil” nearly equals the total economic output of Iran and exceeds total GDP in 150 of the 184 countries ranked by the World Bank.

A lot of folks, like Hillary Clinton, would also want to take those profits. Who wouldn't, especially if it were legal and/or ethical? Think of all the gold-plated Nintendo Wiis you could buy with that sort of money. The government, though, actually has the power to compel this sort of price gouge-- this unfair wealth confiscation-- without regard to legality or ethics.

What's more, they have the nerve to say that this level of taxation is lower than it ought to be. And-- this is the kicker-- the difference between where the taxation level is (atrociously high) and where they think it ought to be (atrociously and insanely high) becomes known as a "subsidy."

Previous Trivia Tidbit: America's Not-So-Awful Savings Rate.

Posted by Will Franklin · 5 February 2007 02:36 PM

Comments

Posted by: zsa zsa at February 5, 2007 03:37 PM

Posted by: zsa zsa at February 5, 2007 03:45 PM

Posted by: JR Ewing at February 5, 2007 03:46 PM

Posted by: zsa zsa at February 5, 2007 08:43 PM