Rocky Mountain Investment Club

[bliz82]

If I hear one more poster complain about "big oil" ruining this country, I'm going to puke! A quick check of gas prices in Houston today (www.houstongasprices.com) shows prices varying from $3.33 to $3.79 a gallon. All below the national average. Anyone who has looked at the major oil companie's financials can see that their profit margins are in the single digits. Razor thin! The numbers are huge (revs/profit/taxes paid/etc) but I'm sorry to ruin everyone's story about the "evil" big oil but it's just not there. These are hard working folks who spend billions of dollars to find the oil that we use everyday. Give it a rest and do some research.

Do you know what XOM's net profit margin was last quarter?
It was 7.6%. And for the year? 7.7%. That's it. Hardly bilking the poor consumer. They had to pay almost half their profit in taxes the first 6 months of 2008. Their 5 year average profit margin is also single digits. McDonalds has a considerably higher net profit margin as does many if not most businesses. Can we put this to rest now. Good grief...