bruce writes:

It is probable that we need to return to the early '70s and the windfall
profit
tax laws. A lot of this price gouging would disappear if there were no extra
profits made.

Sure, let's kill the industry again. I lived through that ill conceived
idea, right her in Texas buddy. It put hundreds of thousands on the
streets and killed the city of Houston for a decade. Screw that.

You want to talk windfall profits? Take a look at pharamacuticals,
banking, finance and medicine and leave the god damn oil industry alone.

Sure. Let 'em gouge the consumer to keep some others working.

I can't argue at least the pharmaceuticals need controls, but what they really
need is there is a share-out with other countries for the R&D, so the U.S.
consumer doesn't pay the entire load for the entire world. The medical industry
is a real case. I don't even begin to know what the solution is.

But I'm not exactly sure how a windfall profits tax could have done so much
damage: it taxed only excess profits.

Check your info. I think it was the Arabs and their shutting off the oil taps
that created the Houson problem.

If it wasn't, and the oil industry needs to screw the consumer more than it
normally does just to stay in business, then it's really time for tighter
regulation.

Charlie Self

"Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and
steady dedication of a lifetime. "
Adlai E. Stevenson