The Courier-Tribune
Thursday, April 10, 2008
www.courier-tribune.com

Big Oil execs think rest of us are stupid

Just as gas prices reached an all-time high in America this week, Big Oil company executives were called to testify before Congress to explain their record profits generated last year. In their testimony can be found the true level of contempt they have for working men and women and just how far removed they are from normal life and middle class financial circumstances.

One of them said he felt that the $351 million retirement package received by a colleague was "competitive." The executives used the fact that people still buy large quantities of their product as proof that we are satisfied with them. That these men consider $35,000 an hour to be competitive compensation is proof enough they have no clue the struggles being faced by working families. Just think that during this same time the truly worthy men and women fighting on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq were making less than $20,000 a year on average. That these men believe we buy so much of their product because we are pleased with their business practices or believe their 'work' worthy suggests they believe us to be stupid.

People do not buy gas because they like or trust the oil companies. People buy gas because they have to get to work, take their kids to school, and deliver their products and services to the marketplace. These oil men think those of us who live and work in the real world are just too dumb to do simple math. They suggest their huge profits and high pay are not related to the price of gasoline.

Never before in history has any industry on the face of the earth made so much money as the oil companies are right now. Never before have oil executives been so highly paid. And never before has gas been so expensive. The wealth these men and companies enjoy has been made at the expense on working families. The purchases that most directly affect the quality of life of middle class and poor families are being driven ever upward in price by the high fuel costs we now face. Clothes and food are becoming more expensive with each passing month as the cost of transporting them to market sky rocket. In many parts of the nation, it is all some families can do to heat their homes through the winter.

Thousands of small businesses and farms are at risk due to high fuel and transportation costs. And the price of filling up the car to drive to work each week has grown exponentially relative to wages. So as these oil men justify their high salaries and beg for ever-increasing government subsidies for their multi-billion dollar ventures, families across America cancel vacation plans and curtail all but the most essential of travel and activities due to the highest gas prices in history.

As always, all of these cost-related cutbacks are passed down to working people. When vacations get canceled, restaurant and hotel employees lose jobs. When corporations cut costs, or small businesses are forced under because of increased fuel and shipping costs, it is people, usually the lowest wage earners in fact, who are "downsized."

Oil executives have enjoyed a golden age under the so-called leadership of George Bush and Dick Cheney. These oil men have supported oil's interest to the serious harm of working families. Congressman Robin Hayes has, for much of his career, voted in support of oil interests while failing to represent the interests of those who work for a living and still struggle to pay their bills. By his own account, the oil stock in his trust fund is worth millions. Since the time of his election, gas has gone from $1.22 per gallon to $3.29.

This week, Big Oil executives added insult to robbery by suggesting that people who buy their products do so gladly and with warm hearts and satisfied minds about the transaction. But unfortunately for these men and the many politicians who have conspired over the years to protect their gouging interests, those of us who DO work for a living are not as dumb as they need or think us to be. We can do the math. We know their greed is directly related to high gas prices and the hardships caused by them on American families. And we know which politicians have, for personal gain and political empowerment, served oil's interests over those of the people whom they are supposed to represent. Their day is coming—it's this November 4th.

Larry Kissell
Biscoe, NC