Some perspective on Exxon’s profits
A lot of folks appear to be bothered that ExxonMobil had profits of $10.36 billion in the 2nd quarter of this year, or as CNN/Money reported it, $1,318 per second. That figure doesn’t bother me at all for several reason, including the facts that (a) 70% of those profits came from outside the United States [PDF] and (b) ExxonMobil paid $27 billion in taxes during that same quarter (I absolutely guarantee you that you will not see any articles touting how Exxon paid $3,422 in taxes every second during this same period).
Here’s the real figure that bothers me: the US Government spends money [PDF] at the rate of:
- $81,431 per second
- $4,885,844 per minute
- $293 million per hour
- $7 billion per day
In other words, if we took all of ExxonMobil’s worldwide 2nd quarter profits and gave that money to the US government, the US would burn through that $10.36 billion in a bit under 36 hours. Put another way: those profits wouldn’t support the US government through a complete weekend. ..bruce..
Category: Main, US Politics
I for one have no problem with ExxonMobil’s profits.
They are (smartly) putting money back into development.
Also, the same idiots that want to charge a ‘windfall’ tax , what are they willing to give Exxon when they are in a downturn cycle.
Yeah, that’s the real question. I was living in Dallas in 1998-99 when oil was down at $10/barrel and all the domestic petroleum companies were struggling or going out of business. Of course, I also remember buying gas for $0.72/gallon…sigh. ..bruce..