Honestly, I've had it up to here with Big Oil. Let me tell you why, but first let me show an article from the New York Times. (My regular readers will have seen that one coming.) I must warn you, I'm in no mood to be nice or particularly funny today. I've had about enough.
Oil is steadily climbing to the $100 a barrel mark. Exxon-Mobil, Sunoco, all the oil companies are making record profits. Exxon-Mobil alone raked in $39.5 billion last year. Billion with a god-damn B. The last I checked, we're paying around $3.27 for a gallon of gas--at least, that's how it is at the station by the town hall here.
This is obscenity. There ought to be a law. Ah, but no. That would be far too restricting and too hard to legally enforce by half. This is the Land of the Free, after all; I ought not to make such irresponsible decisions.
Well, how about I make a highly responsible suggestion? Every one of you--every one of you that reads this, bar none--listen to me. What these people are doing to us--the entire world, not just us in America--is nothing short of gluttonous greed. I suggest that each and every one of you buy a bike. A really good one, with gears and whatnot. Use it to get all around. I realize that some of you work and can't ride a bike there; well, if you must consort with the Great Satans, then at least carpool.
But make sure you cut off ties as much as you can with these cheating pigdogs, and quick. Because you don't want to buy anything from something that isn't human. And I hereby, by the power invested in my by my fully-functioning human conscience, revoke any human status held by the owners and co-conspirators of Big Oil.
Do they have any shame, do you think? Do you think they cry themselves to sleep at night? They better had. It would be only decent thing they've brought themselves to do in years. Since 2005, every one of these little demonic operations has been reporting unheard-of profits. Along with their buddy George "Top of the World, Ma!" Bush, these people have made the most money anyone, I would wager, has ever made. Ever.
You'd think, from this state of affairs, that America would be the Home of the Billionaire Philanthropist. And you would obviously be the most inventive stand-up comedian this side of Richard Pryor, because do you know what these men do? They use their money to make more money. You can guess what they do with the money they make from that. It's a vicious circle, ending only when they die. Until then, it just seems to be a contest as to who can own the biggest, gaudiest pile of useless crap imaginable.
Let me take you on a little trip. Do you understand my point now?
This is why there should be a law. How can these people sleep soundly? They could solve everything with a flick of their expertly-exfoliated wrists. Why not sign away a billion dollars a year to feed half of the continent of Africa? It wouldn't take too much to make sure that kids are properly nourished. So they don't die a slow death of starvation, rather like an insect without a head.
Don't like that metaphor? Well, I told you I wasn't going to be nice today. I'm terribly sorry. Perhaps tomorrow I can get back to wit and heavy-handed sarcasm.
But before I can do anything else--anything at all--I need you to know. You need to know.
You need to know that we don't need devils to scare us. Our devils have always been ourselves. They've always lurked so far above the surface we've forgotten they even exist. But we can't afford to do that. We need to confront the horrors that our own species experiences every single damned day, and that the rest of the species allows to continue. Why do they allow it? Because stopping it would take time and resources away from their personal comfort.
God, it's enough to make me sick. It does make me sick. A yacht? Damn you to hell for that yacht. That would have let a small Indian child survive to see old age by itself. It could have paid for his education, putting him through law school, getting him an apartment and a practice of his own. It would've gotten him enough money for a nice wedding back home in Bangladesh, an a weekend honeymoon on a mountain somewhere. It would have provided money for his children, and his health care when he grew old. It would have given him a nice memorial. It would've provided this money for many more people too. But that just couldn't happen.
Something's got to give, everyone. Because I won't live in a world where lies are truth and the truth is sold as a child sex slave in a third-world country that nobody cares about because nobody can pronounce its name.
Where is there caring anymore? There are people out there who really love their fellow man. Why don't I know them? Why don't they rule the world, instead of these insufferable doppelgangers that have usurped us?
Why isn't there anyone to love the world? In God's name, why?
--Samus
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Do the rich really need that much money? I've seen estates, and high-end stores (never been in one, too poor for that,
and the only thing I can think of when I see them is "what a waste" Twelve bedrooms for three people? Everyone has their own two bathrooms? Maids for neat freaks? Is any of that necessary?
Personally, I think it would be cool if we were like China and had a complex system of bikes. You know, bike taxis, human powered buses, green energy. When are the oil-heads going to realize they're wasting their time on something that is temporary?
I'm sure if they spent as much money per year on Green Energy research as they do on manicures, luxury month-long cruises, and freakishly expensive waterfront vacation homes, our environment would be a lot better off.
Leaves me at a loss for where to start.
How many assets do you have that you would sell for less than the market price? If you had a bike that could be sold for $100.00 why would you sell it for $50.00?
Now, since you would not do what you are asking the oil companies to do why should they?
The big oil companies have some of their own oil reserves, but they buy most of it on the market. Why should any of these people sell at anything but the market price? Greed is the cause, but the suppliers are not the greedy ones, the consumers are. They want more oil. There is a limited supply. Economics 101 can give you a lesson on supply and demand, so I won't bother.
The major cause behind this demand is DOUBLING of wealth in India and China within less than a decade. Yes Virginia, those three boys have benefited from this 'problem.' The world economy is growing at an unprecedented rate, and has been for the longest expansion in recorded history. Even the US economy is in good shape when compared to any but the biggest booms. There is not a recession, but that article you linked to wants you to think there is. Unemployment is low growth is steady, and inflation is modest.
Enforcing some sort of communism on the world has always created more hardship than it solved. Look at what is actually happening. The two richest men in the world have donated most of their wealth to solve problems of disease and hunger in third world countries. The younger and wealthier of the two is retiring from his business to personally run the effort.
This is the best of times, and you can only see the worst of times.