Quote:
Another thing to ponder is profit margin. For a company, the oil industry is making little profit per dollar invested. I think it is around 11%. A "healthy" company should be around 30%.
Better go re-read the Basic Business textbook. Typical profit margins range from 3-5% for healthy companies.
Might I suggest your own advice.... or at least go read a Wall Street Journal...
As I posted a few weeks back, if you look at all the companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrials, Exxon/Mobile is in the bottom half of the average profit margin reported. Some companies are around 40%, others like GM are negative. If I owned a company the size and as diverse as Exxon/Mobile and was only pulling in 11%, I'd be quite unhappy.
Example:
Exxon/Mobile: 11%
GM: -1.27%
Coke-cola: 20.97%
3M: 18.57%
Home Depot: 5.85%
Wal-Mart: 3.23%
Disney: 12.89%
Pfizer: 37.92%
Johnson and Johnson: 18.64%
Now, let's look at the local, state and federal goberments.....
The average tax on a gallon of gas is around $.45/gal. At $2.66/gal (my local price), that equates to 16.92%.... and remind me again what direct involvment did the governments have in producing that gas? Yep. They get an automatic and guarenteed 17% for just allowing a gas station to operate. When gas fall below $2.00 to say $1.97, they government makes 22.84%.... makes you think.
Who's sticking it to who now?
