"Membership in the family of God is neither inconsequential or something to be casually ignored. The church is God's agenda for the world. Jesus said, "I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it." The church is indestructable and will exist for eternity. It will outlive this universe, and so will your role in it."
- Rick Warren
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
This graph is revelatory.
[Source]
In his typically cheeky way, Doug Wilson comments:
For every gallon of gas that is sold in the United States, on average, the local, state and federal taxes come out to 48 cents. The average profit taken away from every gallon of gas by Exxon is --brace yourselves for unsavory news about the oil buccaneers -- 2 cents. If you don't like oil profiteering, then you really have to learn how to see our public servants as the equivalent of 24 Exxons, stacked on top of your travel plans like they were so many leeches.
Exxon feels free to take that 2 cents because they explored, researched, drilled, transported, refined, transported, and sold the gas that you were interested in buying. The government is entitled to it . . . why?
God says not to steal, and not even to think about stealing by means of coveting. We have to learn that our bad attitude toward free enterprise is caused by the larceny in our hearts. We think the way we do about oil companies because we want a piece of the action, for nothing. We don't think that way about predatory taxation for the same reason that one thief doesn't see the larceny in the heart of his fellow thieves. We are looking for the kickback.
As a wise man posted somewhere, "It's not theft if you have to fill out a form." So the devotional thought for the morning is that Jesus wants you to feel sorry for Exxon. And when we hear this call to radical discipleship, our faith staggers. Who can do these things? And the reply comes, comforting our hearts, that with God all things are possible.
Exxon, radical discipleship, predatory taxation all in the same post. Jared, you don't disappoint :)
I don't mean to poke holes in the analogy. I still think you make a good point but I will say that the 2 cents is a bit more complicated than that. Typically the 2 cents analogy (along with the 48 cents per gallon tax) is confimed at the retail gas station level. If you owned a gas station, you probably buy your fuel from a refiner for $3 a gallon (rack price) and you have to sell it for $3.02 in order to compete with other gas stations, thereby only making 2 cents a gallon in profit.
Exxon, being in the upstream (pull oil from the ground) and downstream (refine oil into products)markets own the entire supply chain and they can overcome the 2 cent retail "limitation". Exxon being in the upstream market alone makes them very profitable. The cost of operations per barrel for large upstream oil companies is what $30 on average and then they sell it for $80 or $90 on the market.