In a wide-ranging interview, Bush defended the $36.13 billion profit Exxon Mobil Corp. posted in 2005 — the highest ever for a U.S. company. He said the profit reflected the market and that consumers socked with soaring energy costs should not expect price breaks.

"I think that basically the price is determined by the marketplace and that's the way it should be," said Bush, a former Texas oil man.

Ittl be interesting to see who profits from Part D

As a guy who is hit hard by the price of gas (I live 65 miles from work) I agree with you. Give me a effing break.

But as a man that has recently completed an online business course... I have toagree with what the president said. Business is business, but ethics is ethics. SHOULD they charge us what the market dictates? Probably not. But is it good business? Yep.

The fleecing of America!

How can you look at profits without anything to quantify it? There was also a record set for sales and volume of product, so it is only natural that profit follows suit. Thats like saying C-bid made 100,000 dollars in profit last quarter without knowing how many cigars were sold. Look, I aint defending them, I pay $35+ to fill up my 12gal tank on my PT Cruiser and it pisses me off, but lets not manipulate numbers here.

We all have the power to control their profit. People here in my office still get in their car to go to the pizza place down the block. I aint even talking about those crappy hybrids. More then half my office lives at least 25 miles away from work in the same direction and no one carpools. Even with the benefit of an HOV lane.

I walk through my parking lot here and I can count on one had how many cars get over 20 miles per gallon. Out of maybe 50. There are 8 mini vans in my lot that take one person into work every day. There are 14 suv's that probably get less then 15 mpg.

Look at any supermarket or mall parking lot. We are supposed to be outraged, but we create the enviroment that allows it.

If you are standing there with your pants around your ankles and a jar of vaseline on your butt, don't be surprised when someone comes by and sticks it in ya.

i agree that if you choose to drive something that gets bad gas mileage, don't bitch about gas prices

HOWEVER,

gas prices screw folks in other ways. Milk costs more for example. That screws a lotta people that don't even own a car.

Though gas prices do most adversely affect drivers, the cost of business trickles down to the consumer regardless of the vehicle they may or may not own. That's what pisses me off.

And you can choose to buy powdered milk (eeewwww) or not buy milk at all.

How can you NOT buy gas? If you work and live more than a couple miles away, you have to drive a damn car.

the gas companies are our friends. they are here to help us and profit is only secondary to them. they love us.

mac

if i didn't know any better i'd think you were being dense

No they are not our friends, they are a corporation like any other. Their job is to make as much money for thier shareholders as possible. I am just saying we make it very easy for them. We plant the seed. we fertilize, we water the garden, and we complain when a strong tree grows.

What if for one day, one stinking day, nobody went to a gas station. Take the bus or the train. Fill up the day before. Carpool. One day out of the 365 none of the 250 million plus American drivers just didn't buy gas.

we'd all just buy more gas the next day

They all bought more tea the next day too.

But it made a point.

nice response

Oil companies and all their assets should be siezed by the government, nationalized, and run by the Department of Energy.

Kind of like Castro did with the tabacco industry in Cuba? LOL

....I betcha nobody in Cuba is complaining about the high price of tobacco on an Internet Cigar Forum right now!

It works like a charm! It would solve health care as well.

When possessing corporations are a crime, only criminals will have corporations.

...or something like that.

Oil company profits are around 8%. The companies in the S&P 500 are closer to 15% on average. If I invested $25 per barrel and made $2 profit(8%), then invested $50 per barrel, I'd sure expect to make $4 dollars(8%).

It takes a hell of a lot of money, to buy enough oil to keep us in adequate supply of gas and oil. Buy oil stocks to offset the price of gas. Be happy that a company out there can afford to buy the crude that it takes to keep this country going.

Without those so called greedy oil Co's, we'd be up **** creek. And The idea of a few, that oil Co's should give some profits back, because we are in the supposed hard times(according to the left, haha!), is a joke. Remember there are stock holders that invest in these companies. They'd never go for it, and I'm one of them and I wont either.

One last thing. NO! Dont let the government run the oil industry. They are half the problem with high gas prices. Check how much tax is in each gallon, and you'll soon see who makes the most from a gallon of gas. Here's one clue, it's not the guys that produce the product. Now, that a rip off!

I once did the books for a not for profit org. It was the most profitable not for profit org you'll ever see...except on the books.

The last health insurance company I did the books for had a 12% admin cost. Their HMO/PPO had from 12%-20% (15% Average) admin cost depending on the line of business.

Medicare hovers around 3% admin cost. Therefore Medicare is much more efficient than private insurers right? I actually hear that argument all the time. It is bogus, but it an argument against capitalism and for social medicine. Again...bogus.

My point is the 8% Vs. S&P 15% argument is a pretty standard one. It does make a point to an extent but there are many more variables involved and it is too simplistic.

Different book keeping practices (all legal, just different lines of business), different profit centers, and let’s not forget MACS mantra.... We have a choice on some products but not on energy resources (not a total choice anyway, you do have degrees of use etc... but it's not like buying sandals).

Remember the Michael Douglass Wall Street line "Greed is good"? To an extent this is true. I am a capitalist and think companies should profit as much as they can.

But let’s not pretend the oil companies are not greedy. That’s pretty disingenuous.