Monday, May 26, 2008

Sociali... err, social .... .... ...

Well, since the last blog, the Honorable (?) Senator Maxine Waters has let the cat slip out of the bag, and telegraph her ultimate intentions.

Borie Oilfield
Originally uploaded by luxomni
What the brilliant Senator Waters meant to say was Nationalize.
And what does that really entail? How do you nationalize an industry? In the case of Venezuela, you merely round everyone up, put them on an airplane and make it take off. Where they landed was their problem.

But with nationalizing a company here it is somewhat different, and not so easy.

One, there's that pesky Constitution getting in the way, but that doesn't bother Liberals too terribly much.
But more difficult, what exactly do you nationalize; and from who (or is that whom??)It might actually have been easier if they had not made the Sherman Antitrust Act first and broken everything up into little pieces. The raw petroleum is purchased from various countries, companies and even individuals all over the world. The "Big Oil" companies buy it from these guys at market cost.

Then maybe we should steal it from the end vendor. They are the ones that actually charge us so much and don't even check our tire pressure or give us free glasses with fill-up anymore. Besides, their name is Patel, and they aren't even Americans. But they only have two thousand gallons and if you take it they won't buy any more for you to take.

Then there's the companies themselves. What do they actually do? They buy petroleum and mark its price up and sell it. That and they have a bunch of ugly, smelly refineries all over the place. We take those away form the companies and ... and ... and? What force the employees to continue on - like slaves? Or like government employees, get paid to put in eight? Why am I suddenly thinking of Atlas Shrugged? Wyatt's Oil anyone?

Then how about the stockholders? They are rich teachers? Teachers? Well, yes the Teacher's Retirement System is a big owner of shares. In fact, retirement plans are the largers group of stockholders in most companies and industries. But the COO of the Teacher's Retirement Plan assured me the Friday that they are diversified into Petro China and European Companies as well, just in case our leeches, oops I mean politicians, can't control their greed.

So does the Government steal the oil from these people who own the land the oil sits under. There is a precedent. Break the centuries old tradition of ownership of land as private property. They already want that with property tax and condemnation. Or do they steal it from the retailer, a one-time shot? Or from the processor who provides a dangerous and technical service? Or do they steal it from my retirement? Any way she does it, it will not be better; it will be grandstanding, self-serving theft; and Mr. Tillerson will be correct, we will long for the days of $5 a gallon gas.

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