Jesse Jackson wants to cut Obama's nuts off

[Wayne]

So if we were to strike oil like say BRAZIL did it would have no effect on oil prices?

Doesn't the government of Brazil own the oil companies? "We" won't strike it rich on anything.

[El Kabong]

Doesn't the government of Brazil own the oil companies? "We" won't strike it rich on anything.

Free market buddy....nationalization is for suckers!

Say the US nationalizes oil fields well #1 we don't produce enough and we consume a ton #2 OPEC would shit a brick and the price goes up.

Say the US just discovers a ton of oil and we sell to the highest bidder #1 if we produce more oil then the supply hits the market and more supply = lower prices #2 The companies we would have drilling here are US owned and opperated and therefore taxed by the US government and therefore the American people get benefits from finding and producing oil here even if we don't get to use all of it.

Brazil IS energy independent though and why? Because they drilled and found a gigantic amount of oil....it could happen to us

[Wayne]

Doesn't the government of Brazil own the oil companies? "We" won't strike it rich on anything.

Free market buddy....nationalization is for suckers!

Say the US nationalizes oil fields well #1 we don't produce enough and we consume a ton #2 OPEC would shit a brick and the price goes up.

Say the US just discovers a ton of oil and we sell to the highest bidder #1 if we produce more oil then the supply hits the market and more supply = lower prices #2 The companies we would have drilling here are US owned and opperated and therefore taxed by the US government and therefore the American people get benefits from finding and producing oil here even if we don't get to use all of it.

Brazil IS energy independent though and why? Because they drilled and found a gigantic amount of oil....it could happen to us

Lyle, you're wrong on that point. We would not reap the benefits of any company paying additional dollars in tax when the budget hasn't been balanced in almost a decade. At best that means we would just borrow less from China. At worst, the oil companies would just find additional tax shelters to avoid higher payments. That's like if you got a raise and instead of using the extra money that isn't in your already overdrafted bank account you just spend a little less with the Discover card to get whatever you wanted anyway. I forget the year, but General Motors completely avoided paying any taxes one year through whatever loophole was available at the time and Exxon-Mobil has reason to beam about their record-breaking profits: they know the gov't isn't getting a drop of it. And with a John McCain budget draft with no numbers in it that just means we're in for more of the same.

[Kirkland Laing]

A nationalised oil industry means the oil revenue goes to the people of the nation. If you look at what Norway has done with its oil revenues to improve the standard of living of its people you can see what I mean -- I'm sure Americans would like a free huge pension when they all retire too.

If you let private individuals own the oil -- in America's case if you give them free leases to produce it -- then you get a small group of private individuals who manipulate production to maximise profits, manipulate the government to avoid paying taxes on it, use their monopoly position to charge artificially high prices and thus make artificial profits for generations etc.

Here's a short history of the astounding corruption and outright robbery of oil consumers over generations, huge tax evasion etc. etc. of the US oil companies :

OPEC and Crude Oil