From: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1819594_1819592_1819590,00.html

1. Globalized Jobs Return Home
2. Sprawl Stalls
3. Four-Day Workweeks
4. Less Pollution
5. More Frugality
6. Fewer Traffic Deaths
7. Cheaper Insurance
8. Less Traffic
9. More Cops on the Beat
10. Less Obesity


Can you think of more good reasons to like the more than $4/gallon Gas?
Here are additional reasons from various people including mine:
11. Makes more sense to own an Aptera or electric vehicle priced within reason.
12. Strongly encourages investment in alternative energy and renewables.
13. Nothing moves Americans to action like something impacting their paycheck.
14. Fellow cyclists are explicably more cheery.

15. Add oil company stocks to your investment portfolio.

dauben, your correct (as usual). The percentages of profits of oil companies has always been low, when compared to other types of commerce. "Greedy Big Oil" - simply not true. Besides, American Oil Companies are CORPORATIONS. Who owns corporations? STOCKHOLDERS own corporations. Where does the excess profits go? - Profits are distributed to the STOCKHOLDERS. Who are the stockholders? WE ARE. Then who gets the money? WE GET THE MONEY. - Millet

Why would their CEO's and most other board directors get something like $100 M to $500 M as bonus? Their decision making can be better replaced by a cheap computer program and it would have better results.

That's the reason why the profit margins are lower than the banks. A lot of expenses goes to feed the ruling party. It is the same with oil corporations, it is the same with government owned oil industries. In these I don't pretend to be blind. If you take much more than you need or deserve because you simply can, then that is greed. If you give back so that distribution would be fair and equitable, that is not greed.

When investing in any publicly traded company, I try to make sure that the CEO's really do deserve their pay. Most mutual fund companies have giant salaries for their CEO and board of directors and I avoid them like the plague. That's greed pure and simple. I like the CEO's of CostCo for example whose base salary is small but they are rewarded based on company performances. The earmark of bad greedy CEO's and board members is that their golden parachutes are unbelievable. Investors firing them out, they'll just earn more and move on to fleece out other companies. Case in point is the former CEO of Home Depot. Oil companies and government owned oil industries have these protections at the expense of others. This is called pure evil greed. At least, just my opinion.

I'm part owner of a private company. There are many options shown to us by auditors and financial consultants on how to report your profits by simply reallocating (diverting ) the money to minimize taxes. A report of lower profits usually meant diversion of money into bonuses of the owner members or board of directors before distribution. When distribution time comes, it is lowered profits, and lowered corporate taxes, simply because corporate taxes are a lot more than individual taxes. From the same pool of money, members actually get more if bonuses are distributed first before taxes and company profits and distribution. Member owners get a lot less if the company reported higher profits with higher taxes

When the companies wanted to boost their stock prices or wanted round of funding, then they eat the bullet and divert the money to report higher profit margin and higher taxes. This will boost their stock prices for funding rounds, just an example. The reverse is true if they want to buy back the stocks. They'll shift the money around. "Hey, it is all legal, and we do it, because it can be done. Our lobbyists have crafted these loopholes for us."

Choose very well the companies you invest.

I did a quick search for the CEO of BP and Bank of America. According to businessweek.com the CEO of Bank of America gets a total compensation salary plus options of roughly $25 million. BP's CEO gets roughly $4 million (salary + options) after converting from pounds to dollars.

Publicly traded companies also are a little different than private companies. The bonuses, salaries, and options, are public information reported to shareholders. You can get away with a lot more in a private company, but at the end of the day, unless there's embezzlement going on, there are far fewer ways to cook the books when you have the eyes of thousands of shareholders reading through the financials produced by the company.

Phillip