3 Billion...A new definition of Obscene

[donovan]

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/517 ... e.html.csp

[Derek]

Not slamming the Pac-10...but how is this justified. Do they have the TV ratings of the SEC or Big 10??

The lines between college and pro are becoming more blurry.

[donovan]

Not slamming the Pac-10...but how is this justified. Do they have the TV ratings of the SEC or Big 10??

The lines between college and pro are becoming more blurry.

Indeed they are....and as far as the West Coast...hmm...well...suffice it to say....the free market must justify it....it justifies a lot of amoral transactions.

[GoBoilers]

Eventually who will pay? Us, the consumer. Unless there is a free lunch out there somewhere!

[donovan]

Eventually who will pay? Us, the consumer. Unless there is a free lunch out there somewhere!

We will pay...because we have no moral fiber left...we are pawns the god of instant gratification...

[Spence]

Eventually who will pay? Us, the consumer. Unless there is a free lunch out there somewhere!

That is something most people do not get - it is like the "tax the business crowd". They don't understand that a raise in taxes on a corporation gets added directly into the bottom line. The funny part is that they stand and applaud the tax, then complain when the price goes up on their products. Raise the gas tax and watch and see what happens to gas.

[billybud]

Yeah?

Record profits for Exxon...Chevron's profits exploding this quarter while still getting huge tax breaks. CEO's making more now than they were in the halycon days before the recession.

There is no reason that I should pay in the 20 + percent range of my total income (and I have no deductions beyond the standard) while multi billion dollar business profits are going almost untaxed.

[Spence]

I'm not sure they ever should have gotten tax breaks, but the government tends to do that to business to entice them to go in a direction they want them to go. Here is the bottom line on business and taxes - any business that is publically traded doesnt pay any taxes and they never will no matter how many taxes government throws their way. It add to their bottom line and you pay for it when you buy their product - they don't eat any of it. So while they probably shouldn't receive tax breaks, they will pass it along if the government decides to take it away.

Now for the reason for the record profits - oil companies keep inventory and when the market goes up they make the difference in extra profit. If the have 1.00 in a gal of gas and they normally make .10 in profit and the market goes up .30, they make a total of .40 on that inventory. As it keeps going up their price goes up, but so does the market so they still make extra. Any time the market is on an up trend this happens and politicians us it as an excuse to try and raise taxes. What they don't tell you is when the market is on a sustained down turn, they lose lots of money and no one talks about that. I have real life experience with this. I buy beef, chicken, pork, cheese, oil , and flour based on market pricing. Because these are all commodity products, the pricing is market based and subject to it's volatility. I have made as much as five times my normal mark up on cheese before and I have posed that much. When the market goes up I raise it, when it goes down I drop it as is the case with everyone who buy commodities.


Oil companies make lots of cash, but the industry standard profits margin on these companies it lower than most businesses that are of similar size. Politicians- Republican and Democrat like to create class wars and manipulate them to their advantage, but they are the people that are causing the problem. They could have let the oil companies invest in building refineries and drilling for oil here, but they decided to quit building oil refineries 30+ years ago.

I'm not saying you should feel sorry for oil companies, but their job is to make as much profit as they can make. They are just doing what they were built to do. I feel bad for people who have a tough time making ends meet because of these maket conditions. I pay over twenty thousand dollars a year in medical (including dental and eye) bills. I understand the burden, but the government refuses to open up the heatHcare industry to market conditions on a national basis instead of letting a few companies in each state controlling that state's whole healthcare system.

If you want to blame someone for the high fuel prices blame the politicians who dug this hole.

[donovan]

Blame the American Citizenry for buying into this whole baloney and continuing to think government is the solution. In 1776 there was a war fought, I think Mr. Billybud had just enlisted, over a whole lot less.

[Spence]

Blame the American Citizenry for buying into this whole baloney and continuing to think government is the solution. In 1776 there was a war fought, I think Mr. Billybud had just enlisted, over a whole lot less.

That is true. At the end of the day it is our fault for letting the politicians do this to our country. We bought the whole idea that we can have more than we pay for and we did it at great cost to our children's and grandchildren's future. Our country is five minutes away from total economic collapse. I'm not sure anything we do now can bring us back and I am sure that we would not except it if we could do something about it. Five minutes after the war for independence the people wanted to crown George Washington king - we will never know what we won.

[billybud]

It is business that funds politician's campaigns..It is the business lobby that owns government at the state and federal level. I have lobbied and understand the power of money and special interest groups versus good public policy.

Whether it be millionaire peanut farmers drawing down their guaranteed annual peanut allotment, the banking industry taking taxpayer's money to supposedly bail them out and then using that money to buy out competitors and pay enormous bonuses, tax breaks bought by specific industries, etc., etc...it is money that talks and good national policy that walks.

You and I? Well, supposedly our vote has more effect then a lobbyist's cash drawer. But, in reality, all of the little decisions that make up monetary policy do not come individually to our notice...and when they do, it only because some group with an innocuous sounding name (but actually fronting for an industry) is advertising the issue with their spin on it.

[Spence]

We let the lobbyist's cash draw work because we but into it all - like you buy into the whole oil profits thng. Also it isn't all business lobbying. It is also lots of non profits and unions. They have similar lobbying power. The problem isn't lobbying. Lobbying is important for education, because lawmakers cannot be fully versed on all problems and subjects. They problem is paying for the access. I should be able to present to my congressman the same as Jack Welch. That isn't possible under what the system has evolved into.

[billybud]

Lobbying is education...LOL

I did a lot of that...but, when the votes came down, lawmakers paid more attention to the money and the threats to fund an opponent who would "do the right thing" next election cycle.

A politicians sole job is to be reelected. And they know who butters the bread. Blackmail...sure. It works. Bribery...you could call it that...but education? Let a professional lobbyist tell you that your clients did not pay you to educate..they payed you to influence the vote...pure and simple. Advance the issue.

Public interest lobbyists were always at a disadvantage because they rarely had a constituency that could mount an opponent for an election.

[Spence]

Lobbying is education...LOL

I did a lot of that...but, when the votes came down, lawmakers paid more attention to the money and the threats to fund an opponent who would "do the right thing" next election cycle.

A politicians sole job is to be reelected. And they know who butters the bread. Blackmail...sure. It works. Bribery...you could call it that...but education? Let a professional lobbyist tell you that your clients did not pay you to educate..they payed you to influence the vote...pure and simple. Advance the issue.

Public interest lobbyists were always at a disadvantage because they rarely had a constituency that could mount an opponent for an election.

And that is the problem. Lobbying was supposed to be about education. It wasn't supposed to be about bribery or elections. The system didn't start out this way. We let it get to this point.

[donovan]

Maintaining the status quo...that is politicians sole goal.

You can not define the problem so individuals do not hold the solution...if you do..flick it in because there is just more of the same. I am okay flicking it it....I have given up on our government...let the young bucks and does worry about it.