Originally posted by Mobycat:
Not to mention the lack of refinery capacity.
Who's fault is that? Who prevents this country from building refineries? Who prevents this country from building more nuclear power plants? Who prevents EVERYTHING regarding energy and growth?
You are a member of the primary impediment to all of these things.
You might want to explain that. Only about $10 billion of those taxes were income taxes.
You are wrong on the income tax issue. Plus oil... or gasoline and other petroleum products are taxed by the government at varying and multiple stages. One of the largest being at the retail level where multiple governments add up to a total rape of the consumer at the retail level.
Which makes one wonder...when will we start seeing glass returnable bottles again?
You won't see that. The environmentalists and the nanny state they control will not allow it. Some child might cut themselves on a glass bottle.
Yes, they pay a lot of taxes...but it's not much more than the taxes the richest people pay. Highest personal income tax is what, 38%? Exxon paid 41%.
Rich people rarely pay all of their income through income taxes.
WTF?
Unless they are idiots, almost none of it is taxed as income.
Income taxes are for employees. People who work for other people and punch a clock.
Rich people's income streams come in the form of capital gains and some of it is even insulated from taxes through trusts and even fraudulent non-profit entities.