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Is there such thing as too much profit?
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
Yes, there is:
Shell posts the biggest profits in British history
And before someone starts complaining, the increased profit do not come from increased sales, but from sneaky price increases.
I.e. we're cheeky chaps and we'll take the opportunity to add a few pennies here and there when oil price rises, and then blame it on the markets- and let the consumer be screwed over twice.
If there was ever a need for a windfall tax... :rolleyes:
Shell posts the biggest profits in British history
And before someone starts complaining, the increased profit do not come from increased sales, but from sneaky price increases.
I.e. we're cheeky chaps and we'll take the opportunity to add a few pennies here and there when oil price rises, and then blame it on the markets- and let the consumer be screwed over twice.
If there was ever a need for a windfall tax... :rolleyes:
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Comments
No, they come from a lack of competition.
Oh yeah, just what blair and brown need, more cash to go buy guns with. You really are soft in the head. :rolleyes:
Nope, we get stupid amounts of tax from them already, taxing them any higher would either mean we pay more at the pumps or they shift offices abroad.
Yes they are making massive profits, but they are also massively investing in new oil, something we need them to do.
It comes from increases in world prices for oil, which Shell has little to no control over.
Lack of competition? The nature of some industries is high barriers to entry, you can't change that... And there is competition.. it's just some do the job better than others.
Though i agree some profits are way too much especially when theyre screwing the customer over, you can't change companies wanting more money.
Nah, bobbins. Course you can. You can start by removing the ability to incorporate.
Nah, again, bobbins. With profits like that, if there wasn't a state supported fiction in the way, there would be hundreds of people chancing their arm in the field.
If they sold the oil closer to the cost price they would increase their market share but then have next to nothing to invest for the future.
If we want oil for the near future we need them to invest, and for that they need to make profit. Getting oil out of sand reserves will cost a fortune.
It's nothing like a race.
It's more like a pie making contest. If you only let those who have previously proven good at making pies make pies, then you miss out on a lot of production and innovation. The production of pies might not be as good from some, but there'll be more of them, and so they'll be cheaper.
Theres nothing wrong with failing businesses. There is something wrong with not being allowed to even compete.
Yeah, and there's nothing we can do about it unless we change human nature
1) Theres no such thing as human nature, unless you count the really basic stuff like breathing and keeping warm.
2) Yes there is, theres loads you can do. You could assassinate all corporate leaders, you could have a sit in and the local YMCA, you could dress like swampy and say "we shall not be moved" before being, inevitably, moved.
assasinate the leaders then new ones are put in place, and as for the YMCA thing.. err yeah you could do that but im not sure why lol
As for human nature... dont you think its natural to feel competitive and wanta do the best for your 'cause'?
Would you have no objection to your local shops overcharging you needlessly if they can get away with it?
What an ugly, unpleasant and nasty business capitalism is...
errrrm....no. Just don't have any permanent leaders.
lol I'm not either. It's the sort of thing idiots who believe in democracy do though, sing songs and sit in the road like anyone gives a shit.
No, not really. My "cause" is that there are no causes, if you want to put it like that. Take it or leave it, it's all the same to me.
Why bother? I don't care about you, you don't care about me.
Like they don't already?
I think your just frightened of the idea of doing things for people that the actually want you to do and are willing to voluntarily pay for.
So we had better become thieves to sort it all out? :rolleyes:
Viva la Revolution!!!
But then again maybe not because Capitlaism has led to the most comfortable and contented societies humanity has ever produced and other systems have fallen by the wayside due to there failures.
Better to complain on an internet discussion board......
No one is complaining about public transport prices so they go up further, same goes for petrol companies, if mor epeople complained, like back in the fuel strike days afew years back, prices would drop most likely as they did then.
The only way consumers can put pressure on companies is by doing boycotts. Boycotts however only work if they are strictly enforced, which in the case of oil companies never happens.
The government however has the power of making such companies lower their prices. When oil prices were reaching record levels a few months ago and the oil companies creamed yet more profits while the price at the pump went through the roof, some European country (can't remember which) threatened to impose an immediate windfall tax on the oil companies there unless they cut their prices.
Lo and behold, a few days later there were lower prices at the pumps, and the oil companies still had billions of euros of profit left for their shareholders. And no-one went bankrupt, and no-one had to be made redundant.
Actually I think capitalism is pretty good and that evry other system has been far uglier and nastier, can you think of a btter one as practised on any large scale?
The question of greed is irrelevant, people simply are 'greedy', I am, you are, everyone is, we all want what is best for ourselves to a large degree and the 'greed' of businesses is what drives the production of all the wonderful things that we take advantage of.......
There is nothing good about greed. And it is possible to make a living and even make a very tidy profit without being greedy and without abusing your position and ripping off others.
Just because many people do it doesn't make it right. Anyone with a moral compass in them should be able to work it out.
On a hypothetical case, the owner of the only petrol station in 40 miles charging average or slightly over average prices per litre, in line with the rest of the country, is okay. The same owner charging 115p per litre because he knows people have no option but to buy his petrol or travel for many miles is being a greedy scumbag and such attitude can never be morally justified, unless he had genuine reason for such overpricing.
Yes, but she helped found the ideological justification for neo-liberal trade policies and made the ideas of Milton Friedman (which worked so well in Chile) popular.
*scarpers*