Originally Posted by
papacharlie
how can one person make that kind of money???it is immoral,that's all there is to it.
Maybe that's one of the reasons that we are paying almost $4 a gallon.Imagine how much exxon pays in salaries to all their top managment.
It's immoral? Last I checked, it's a free country. If I start a business, my goal is going to be to succeed, and if I do, good for me. Warren Buffet made some smart decisions, and he has a lot of money. Good for him. Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft at a timely time, and they made a lot of money. Good for them. Same for the Google guys, or anyone else. Some people get lucky, and some people just work the system better than others. Good for them. But I'm pretty sure success is not immoral.
And no, their salaries are not the reason we pay so much for gas. The reason is that their raw material, which is crude oil, is expensive. And it's expensive because we're competing with the rest of the world for the same resource, and we're beholden to foreign control of the supply. I'm not saying all of OPEC is deliberately trying to screw anyone (though they could be), but if I'm not mistaken Venezuela, for example, has a little bit of sway there and they're not exactly our friends.
And don't take this personally, but you seriously sound like a communist. Seriously.