filthy stinking rich

Everyone else is writing about it, so to write about it myself is to just be another voice in the crowd. But I cannot help it, it is so frustrating all this stuff with the high cost of oil and gasoline. I do not even have a car at this point but the effects spill over into increased cost of everything else (insert cheesy allusion to an oil spill here).
I read in the paper the other day about how Exxon made a record amount last quarter with 11.7 billion dollars—not just in sales, in PROFIT. There is a deep stench here that says that the rise in the price of gasoline is not necessarily correlated with the cost of oil because they are making more money than before despite the rising number of people seeking more fuel efficient cars and resorting to riding bikes. Something just is not right in this scene. One would think that with these factors playing in, that they would be losing money and having to make cuts and such just like everyone else. Instead, these massive companies are raking in the money while the rest of the world is finding ways to accommodate for the rise in food costs due to the rise in the price of oil. They continue to make even more while the economy suffers and we ultimately make less because more goes into practical costs which means we spend less recreationally which feeds back into hurting the economy. Why is it that these oil companies cannot afford to make a few cuts in profits, make a little less for the sake of the entire country?
Even more so we see this twisted, crude, slippery business when we see that the cost of crude oil per barrel has decreased by as much as 15% while the cost of gas at the pump has seen a mere 3% reduction. Is it just me or is it that the people that just announced record profits are now making even more because the “wholesale” price went down but their “retail” price has barely budged? (http://www.nypost.com/seven/08032008/business/oil_drop_brings_no_relief_to_the_pump_122827.htm)
While I am at it, another thing that bugs me is the yearly increase of gas prices during national holidays because they know that we are going to be driving all over to go on vacations and visit families. They have so much of a monopoly over our transportation that we cannot do much about it except grimace when we face the pump or try and find some special bus, train, or plane deal. Whatever happened to doing something like reducing the costs at these auspicious times of the year to encourage travel?
Where was I? Oh yeah, profits of the gas people. While these people are busy padding their wallets, the governator is busy cutting costs to meet California deficits. Thousands of jobs are being wiped out and judges that used to make $178,000 annually are going to receive $6.55 hourly which is the federal minimum wage but less than the state minimum wage of $8 per hour. While some of this may be good to help us increase efficiency, government jobs are incredibly important—we cannot really afford to have underpaid people running things!
A final thought. While we think we are struggling, the reality is that America is still incredibly wealthy, we are just having to budget a little more closely than we have had to in a long time. Smaller economies, poorer people are hit much harder overseas than we are as they watch their tiny incomes stay the same and the cost of living increase. Think of the people that already were impoverished or had little to eat, they have less now. We are in crisis.
I confess I am no business or economic or political expert, so if I am off-base or misinformed in areas, please hit me up with your thoughts because all of this is looking incredibly messy—enough for someone that usually tries to stay out of these topics to say something.

March 23, 2005 - Death=Debt

Death=debt.

Mood: cadaverous.

Stupidity--once you are dead, even though your material possesions do not follow you, they certainly leave you and you are responsible for how they leave you; you have to divide up your junk and will it to people.
Dumb--once you are dead you still have to pay someone to do something with your cadaver.
I just realized how dumb everything in this society is[pardon my generalizations], honestly it is ludicrous. My aunt was telling me how she was making a down payment on her cremation. Her motives are altruistic--she does not want to make the family that she leaves behind have to deal with it and pay for it themselves. Should it not be that once you die, you can finally be free of all the worries of debt and blah blah blah. Well, ok, maybe in some people's minds this does not seem all too odd. Lets take a look at the price tag and perhaps your mind will be slightly swayed. Six grand to burn your lifeless and inhibiting vehicle for your soul. I just do not get it. It costs even more to NOT burn your corpse, so you pay them more to do nothing with it (yeah yeah, I know I am simplifying it). I was already speechless about this whole ordeal when I heard that you have to pay an additional one thousand dollar bills if you want to have your ashes signed over to the care of a family member, rather than it sitting in a wall next to all the others.
Something about the thought of making downpayments way in advance is crazy to me (my aunt is still a quite a ways off from the half century mark). Something about, in a sense, going into debt so that you can die.
Seeing as I have no choice in this, in some way I will be paying for my death which will not matter, I might as well begin saving up for my death. So dumb that even death is not a way out of debt. Why does this country love debt?