aMENto that.You think things are bad now wait tilBarock HUSSEIN Obamma gets elected. hello eight dollar gas and more forine cars everywhere. No way HUSSIEN Obamma will put America first, hes already pledged alegience to the Muslim countries. Thats why no flag lapel pin. McCain is no W, but hes probably the best hope GM has.

 

I agree with 3hummers. They may make $40 billion, BUT, I would bet that 8% profit margin is lower now then it was 10 or 15 years ago. It may be easy to talk about earning in dollar amounts, but it's not the dollar amount they make that matters, it's the percentage and profit margin.

If you run your own company and make $1,000,000 in revenue, and you only see a 8% profit after operating expenses, that means of that $1,000,000 you made, you only get $80,000 in profits, out of a million bucks!

I'm sorry, but If that was my company, all it would take would be 1 lawsuit to take that $80,000 in profit and throw it out the window.

If the government taxed the oil companies, guess who would pay for it; WE would, plain and simple, and I doubt anybody could deny they would work that into the price of a gallon of gas.

Here in Chicago, if you live in Cook county, you are paying three taxes on gas; County, State and Federal. I would love to have a 4th one If I have to come to the city, I make certain I have a full tank before I leave my county. There's no way I'm paying $4.50+ a gallon when I can go 2 miles away from my house and pay $4.15.

Would it be nice to get a piece of that $40 billion? Yup, sure would, because maybe that could go towards helping Vets or funding education bills, but in reality, the money would go to fund one thing; the war, and it would be an endless vicious cycle. More money to fight the war, more war, which drives up gas prices, which gets taxed higher, which makes even MORE money to fight the war, which drives up prices, etc.

That's the way I see it.

 

You only have to take one year of political science to know that if this were a corporation, and not a country, it would have been shut down years ago. BUT moving on to the oil companies not paying ANY tax on a 40 billion dollar profit is not fair to Joe us. What would be the harm of gas being HALF the price it is now with a 20 billion profit? They are getting away with it, so why not ride the cash cow until it's back is broken.

We wont solve it here, but I do hope GM makes it. Maybe they need better management, they could certainly use better advertisements. The government played it's part in helping them get to where they are, only seems right they help. As far as the flood of non American cars, President Jimmy Carter did his best to help put a stop to it, but that only lasted the 4 years he was in office. The witch hunt mentality on American made SUV's and those that buy non American cars don't see themselves as part of the problem. To easy to blame some one else for their ignorance.

 

There will be alot of people losing sleep over the next couple of weeks. I left the industry and Michigan 9 years ago and changed careers when my job was moving to Mexico. I really miss the midwest, and hope that the domestic industry regains its footing. Most Americans don't realize the importance of the auto industry, we can't afford to lose this infrastructure. It's unfortunate we don't see people outraged at foreign cars, they just hate American SUVs, I don't get it.

 

This I'd have to agree with you on. I don't think anybody could argue that (but I'd like to hear it).

 

As far as I can tell, the primary reason why we have $4 gas is because we import 60% of our oil from the middle east, russia and other countries who may not have the USA's best interests in mind. So who's fault is that? I hear stories on the news about alternative energy sources. Like what? Solar powered cars? Hydrogen fuel cells? If it were possible, doable, economical, and there was a market, people would be building them right now. But who wants to ride to work at 5mph? Or forget to "plug in the car" at night and not be able to go into work?

So he we are in 2008, competing with India, China and the third worldfor oil from Saudia Arabia, the same country that created the 19 9/11 hijackers. When I think of things like this, I say we are so stupid as Americans we deserve everything we are getting.
But wait a second, there are alternaitve fuel sources that we know about right now, that will help us solver many of our energy problems (carbon footprint which I personally think is a lot of crap, greenhouse gases, and dependance on foreign fuel). What about nuclear power?

So in the end, we're too scared to drill in the artic national wildlife refuge because it's some kind of primordial anti-human zone. We can't drill offshore for oil because everyone is scared to death of an oil spill, and we can't have nuclear power because people have seen Chernobyl on the news and are afraid of it and there's always the "not in my backyard" argument. There isn't a politician that is "really" willing to face up to what needs to be done. We can eliminate our foreign need for oil with nuclear power plants that replace the oil burning plants all across the country.

The environmental movement in 2008 is no longer about the environment. It's a pop-cult religion and "An Inconvenient Truth" is thier bible. I like the environment just as much as everyone else does. I enjoy tooling through the woods and finding a beautiful little place to have a picnic and then come home and savor my moment.I leave a place behind just as beautiful as what I found for the next person to enjoy. That's my mantra.I want to leave a world better off for my daughter. But I refuse to accept science sans critical thought, meaning modern environmentalism.

I drive to work in the Northeast every day and people are still driving big SUV's. I still see plenty of H3's on the road. Where I live is on a very steep hill where the road is very windy (think Lombard Street in San Francisco). Most of the time in the winter, the plows won't even plow the snow. Every single resident of my street, without exception, owns a foor wheel drive vehicle.I just can't for the life of me picture thousands of Prius's spinning off the road with just a few inches of snow. I recently saw one ona flat bed after an accident. I can still remember seeing with my own eyes how much body damage and corrosion took place from the batteries after an impact. I keep trying to do in my head the calculus of what is better? Acid from batteries leaking in our landfills or gasoline? There's no right answer.

So GM makes the Chevy Volt, problem solved, they make billions, etc etc. But wait a sec, electric cars are pulled out of the closet every few years like the answer to all of our problems. No one ever buys them though. Why? Maybe because most places people want to go are far enough away (like our jobs for one) that we can't justify cars that need recharging all the time. Do you think employers are going to give employees free electricity to juice up thier cars while they are at work without passing this cost on to thier customers?

And then there's Hummer. I'm a Hummer owner, so I'm biased. But where was it written in stone that Hummer is supposed to be some mass market car with wide appeal for all?? Not many people can afford $70K cars unless its leased and gas is $1 a gallon forever. So some dimbulb who can barely afford to just make the lease payments in 2004 buys a new H2, probably living from paycheck to paycheck,and now reality has caught up with his checkbook and he's screwed. That's why I see so many H2's on lots with discounts and low mileage. That's how I bought mine. Bottom line, if you need to know how much an H2 costs to gas up of the mpg, thenyou probablycan't afford it, so move on and getthe prius. It's a special purpose vehicle in a niche market. If GM is either (a) too stupid to realize this or (b) can't figure out how to make money on low production vehicles, well then maybe they are doomed or Hummer would be better off in other hands. How many years did Chevrolet keep building the Corvette from 1953 with a loss until it finally made money. So see GM already knows how to make tons of money on a car with low production quantities. Hummer needs someone with passion to run the operation, not just another MBA bonehead more worried about his own McMansion.

Now that was a rant!!!

Angela

 

Wow Angela, that was well put. (I will have to read it a few more times). I loved your wording "The environmental movement in 2008 is no longer about the environment. It's a pop-cult religion and "An Inconvenient Truth" is thier bible."

To add one thing about some people not being able to afford a Hummer, and the gas it takes to drive one. It's always been my feelings that's another reason why they are hated so much. People will always knock what they can't have. (for the most part).

Anyway, LOVED your post, it was a very good read. Thanks for posting.

 

Nice read

 

Great thread.

 

ORIGINAL: NEFirewood

As far as I can tell, the primary reason why we have $4 gas is because we import 60% of our oil from the middle east, russia and other countries who may not have the USA's best interests in mind. So who's fault is that? <snip>

First off, in the US we have been so spoiled with cheep oil that we are convinced that $4 is expensive. When you adjust for inflation, we are just popping out of the dip we've been in for the past 15 years. Anybody that didn’t think that it would end some day deserves what they are getting.

Countries that are selling oil to the US and other countries don’t have there best interests in mind. Many of them have fewer reserves than we do. Do you think we’ll be dumb enough to sell oil to them when they run out? Maybe, but they’ll be paying for it. Is this the best for you and me today? No, but our children will appreciate it. Use oil from the rest of the world today, when it gets depleted or they figure out that they shouldn’t sell it, and then we’ll get it out of out back yard.

So he we are in 2008, competing with India, China and the third worldfor oil from Saudia Arabia, the same country that created the 19 9/11 hijackers. <snip>

The men who hijacked the planes on September 11, 2001 were created by al-Qaeda.The only tie in to Saudi Arabia is that Osama bin Laden didn’t like the fact that US forces were there. Why were US forces there? They were asked to be there by the Saudi Arabian government and they were being financially supported by the Saudi Arabian government. A mad man was responsible for what happened on that day not the government or citizens of Saudi Arabia.

So in the end, we're too scared to drill in the artic national wildlife refuge because it's some kind of primordial anti-human zone. We can't drill offshore for oil because everyone is scared to death of an oil spill, and we can't have nuclear power because people have seen Chernobyl on the news and are afraid of it and there's always the "not in my backyard" argument. There isn't a politician that is "really" willing to face up to what needs to be done.

Not yet... but that's ok.

We can eliminate our foreign need for oil with nuclear power plants that replace the oil burning plants all across the country.


Oil burning power plants? That's a whopping 1.6 % electricity production. Nearly half the electricity produced in the US is from coal...... US coal.

<snip>

If GM is either (a) too stupid to realize this or (b) can't figure out how to make money on low production vehicles, well then maybe they are doomed or Hummer would be better off in other hands. How many years did Chevrolet keep building the Corvette from 1953 with a loss until it finally made money. So see GM already knows how to make tons of money on a car with low production quantities. Hummer needs someone with passion to run the operation, not just another MBA bonehead more worried about his own McMansion.


But HUMMER is an environmental black eye weather it is deserved or not. For a company that's trying to up there "green" image, it's a good reason to dump a brad whose future market is questionable. They get two birds with one stone.

Now that was a rant!!!

Angela

Steve