$1,485.55 a second is how much PROFIT Exxon Mobil made in the second quarter of this year.

I am speechless. Actually what I feel like saying is not very polite.

Read more here. (http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/31/news/companies/exxon_profits/index.htm?cnn=yes)

Well, we give them the money...

British gas, owned by Centrica, just raised gas prices by 35% and electricity prices by 17%... then announced £1billion profits (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7534421.stm).

I now have to choose between photography and electricity. I am just renovating an old oil lamp.

So buy their stock. They're a corporation just like any other in the country. They are here to make a profit, not provide a public service.

Or start a non-profit energy company and try to change the world.

Or don't buy their product. I haven't owned a car in ten years. It can be done. Research people living "off the grid". New Mexico is a haven for solar energy. Buy some photovoltaics and one of the prototype electric cars out there.

Exxon is no more evil than any other for-profit, publicly-held company. They do what their shareholders (stock owners) demand. Buy some stock and vote. If you have money in mutual funds, there's an EXCELLENT chance you you're making money off of their actions.

Complaining doesn't change things. What actions are you taking?

Well, we give them the money...

Well, I don't :)

Seriously, Terence have good point. I would love to invest in solar and wind electric making gadgets and disconnect from electric company power lines. Why I don't do it? Well, too expencive to buy them...

BINGO! Terence.

I hate it when people whine about how much someone (company or person) else makes. I make a very good living and I have been self-employed for 14 years. I have some very large clients (I have been very lucky, but I also work very hard for them and provide a great product at a great price point). Now, if someone said that about me I would be extremely p!ssed off.

Then they start whining about taxes... I won't tell you what I pay in income taxes, but I can guarantee you I don't mind paying my "fair" share and that most people wouldn't want my burden.

So, as Terence says, if you want a part of it... invest. BTW, I don't invest in anyone except myself and my family.

I totally agree with Terence too. People complain about utility companies making profits and think that they have a right to cheap energy just because they, as a society, have turned it into a necessity.



Steve.

On the other hand. If we decide not to use products which require energy, then people who make those products will lose their job. And remember what doesn't need energy. Well, I can get rid of my electric or gas owen, but then I would need woods (that is to destroy forests) for cooking, or heating or...

Tough choice.

And do you know in some countries, citizens by law are obliged to have one informative reciever. That can be radio or TV or other, but citizens must have thing on which they can recieve informations (for example about natural catastrophies), so it is not something they have choice about.

Personally I would renationalise our utilities. Privatisation was supposed to create competition and cheaper prices for the consumer, it hasn't.

Actually, my family is now involved with a wind farm that creates electricity for the Southwest.

Personally I would renationalise our utilities. Privatisation was supposed to create competition and cheaper prices for the consumer, it hasn't.

That is what I think too. Strategic products like water, energy, and some basic food (grains for bread and like) should be under control of state.

Just imagine situation I am owner of company which supply water to one town. I decide because of profit to cut down water supply to town. Or to close facilities and leave town without water.

This thread is going to the soap box sooner than you can say "gas".
Oil, gas, capitalism, socialism, woo hoo, all the crazed idealists and armchair economists are gonna fall upon it like starving lions on lost-in-the-savanna-missionaries!
Let's see if high gas prices will put some brains in some people...

I haven't given Exxon hardly a dime since the oil spill in Alaska for which they have been evading full responsibility for twenty years now.

I agree that we're not really going to change the "evil corporations" until we either buy them out or make them irrelevant. The best way to impact Exxon's profits is to quit buying their products.

I have 23 years old collegue who is buying 1,8 liter car. Secondhand which means old motor and moch higher consumption than with new car... When we told him he should think because of gas prices he attacked us "What do you know you old farts..."

I am afraid not, Ari my friend :)

When I say gas, I do not mean petroleum, I mean the stuff you cook with.

Ok, benzine prices :)

You know, you can already power your gadgets with solar panels.
And, most people don't need the fully fledged computers they have. One of those new power laconic laptops would be more than perfect.
As it is, driving a motor powered vehicle these days is like smoking: its addictive, hard to quit, bad for your pocket, harmful to the environment and a slow death...

Exxon-Mobil produces around 2.5 million barrels per day. The total world production is about 85-87 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia alone produces 12.5-13 million barrels per day, while OPEC as a whole produces about 32 million barrels per day.

So Exxon Mobil produces approximately 3% of the world's oil. I am in this business, and I don't particularly like dealing with them, but the reason they make a lot of money is that they produce a lot of oil and are very good at not wasting too much money on stupid capital projects. But their production is a small fraction of what is produced every day. As some have pointed out, you have the opportunity to own some of this seeming bonanza by buying their stock. This is not an option, for instance, should you want a share of Saudi Arabia's oil wealth, who produce 5 times what Exxon produces.

They are an easy target because they are the biggest of the publicly owned oil companies. But they are dwarfed by the nationalized oil production coming from places like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico, among others.

So yeah, boycott Exxon. That way the gas you do buy will put dollars in the pockets of the Saudis, who probably have some interesting ideas about what to do with it.

The sooner we can stop shipping a good percentage of our GDP overseas to pay for this addiction, the better, IMO. Wind, solar and nuclear are all ways to start weaning ourselves off of this addiction.

Personally I would renationalise our utilities. Privatisation was supposed to create competition and cheaper prices for the consumer, it hasn't.

I agree with this too. The only problem is that in the past utilities, railways, etc. under civil servant control were not very efficient. They need to be nationalised but be accountable to the public (who effectively own them).


Steve.

I think the railways at least were more efficient when they were nationalised. It used to be you could go to any station and buy a ticket anywhere in Britain. Now you have myriad very expensive fares, with multiple companies, offering deals if you book in advance a la booking flights, and penalties if you don't... it is now more expensive to travel by rail than to fly in Britain.

So yeah, boycott Exxon. That way the gas you do buy will put dollars in the pockets of the Saudis, who probably have some interesting ideas about what to do with it.


I gues they would do what others would do and what others did and do when they want and can.

But, thing is: Our bag guys are better than their bad guys. Our bad guys do bad things for good goals and therefore we must forgive them, and their bad guys do bad things just because they are bad.

Those explanations are soooo passe my dear...

I'm not sure what you are getting at. My point is only that shipping a large part of our national wealth to another country that has different policy objectives is not in our long term best interests. Not sure where the bad guys thing crept into the discussion. I never said anybody was a bad guy. My point is that they are a sovereign nation with different goals.

I gues they would do what others would do and what others did and do when they want and can.

But, thing is: Our bag guys are better than their bad guys. Our bad guys do bad things for good goals and therefore we must forgive them, and their bad guys do bad things just because they are bad.

Those explanations are soooo passe my dear...

Never mind

it is now more expensive to travel by rail than to fly in Britain.

That's true. Last year for the Ilford tour I flew from Southampton to Manchester for much less than the train would cost and met two others at the airport who had also flown in from London and Norfolk.

When I went to France a few years ago I realised how good a railway system could be. I would be happy to give (not sell) our railway system to SNCF and let them run it properly.

You are absolutely right about ticketing. The thing I hate is that a period return costs more than a day return. Why? It's just two separate trips. Is this just a UK thing?


Steve.