ExxonMobil Bashing

Let's talk briefly about ExxonMobil. This is a company that provides us with products that we simply cannot live without. It is baffling to see and hear so many in the media and "tree-hugger" organizations continuously bash, demean, and attack the company. It proves once again, losers always stab at the ankles of leaders in an attempt to bring them down. But why bring them down?

Because they make too much money? Their primary product, oil, is hated?

Let's tackle the money thing. They are a global entity and you and I cannot fathom the size of their operations. Every number that measures the size of the ExxonMobil or the oil industry is large. You need a calculator with extra digits like the IRS uses just to add up the numbers without causing a stack overflow (a little geek lingo for you fellow geeks -- hey, I aim to please). People like to throw out large profit numbers as if all the employees of ExxonMobil stalked the dead of the night and stole from your homes. Yes, $11.66B is a lot of money earned in a quarter (Feb 2008). But, their profit numbers need to be viewed from a percentage basis to truly understand. Their net income has ranged recently from 7% to 10%. That is not that exciting of a number. Talk to anyone in business.

But their growth is extremely beneficial to....yes....us. They are spending record amounts to find and develop new sources of energy -- not just oil. They just announced spending $125B over the next five years on new energy projects to meet our growing energy needs. Think about THAT number. That is a huge number. $125B. Now don't think it is an altruistic move to spend this much on finding new sources of energy. They are a private company and they HAVE to do everything possible to ensure they are an ongoing concern. Meaning, they want to stay in business for a very long time. I'm sure they'd like to be in business in 200 to 300 years selling us gas-neutrino discharge power cells when our oil may be dried up. So, look what we have here. A private company spending money they have earned on something we want so they can provide what we need. Hmmm.

If you still think their profits are too large, add up how much they pay in taxes. In 2007 alone they paid $105 B in world wide taxes. For every dollar they earn, they pay two and half dollars in taxes. And this does not include the taxes charged at the pump. In the US alone, they paid $65 B over the past five years. Now here is an interesting stat...during that same period of time their US earnings was $19 B less then the taxes paid. Let me do the math for you...they made $46B in the US over the past 5 years but paid $65B in US taxes. Do you think they will continue to be a US corporation over time?

We should be proud of them as a US corporation. They are up against companies that dwarf their size! They rank 14th in the world in terms of oil reserves and probably even lower in terms of revenue and profits. The companies above them are state run enterprises from (listed from largest to smallest): Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, UAE, Iraq, Russia, Kuwait, Venezula, Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, and Malaysia.

So turn off the radio or TV the next time you hear about taxing wind fall profits. If anyone should be taxed it should be the government's wind fall tax confiscation.

We also need to stop buying into this tribalism -- that is -- the "us" versus "them" mentality. It is easy to paint a large company as "them" and how "they" are raking in profits over "our" hard work. But who is this company? It is "us". It is made up of people just like you and I...proudly working hard to achieve their dreams.