need pictures, morons?

note: you know nothing about the oil spill in the gulf of mexico? you’re not in the target of this post, and not in danger to die before you’re one hundred. you’re serene – a brain in the shape of a bowling ball has its advantages.

the picture of a pelican smeared with oil is great – it outrages the dumbest idiot. let’s sue, fine, throw in jail those greedy bastards who reap billions of annual profits from gasoline, while destroying our environment, our poor-little-ol’ darling-wonderful-ever warming planet.

the picture of a pelican smeared with oil is great to start the usual whining, like ‘see? it goes into your car’s tank, too!’

the picture of a pelican smeared with oil is shit when it comes to solutions. no, killing that evil giant of BP isn’t the way out. no, using bikes instead of cars doesn’t help. perhaps thinking might. of course, it can be boring.

fact: we can’t stop using gasoline engines tomorrow. fact: gasoline use pollutes. fact: major oil companies have profits on the order of tens of billions of dollars each year – each of them. fact: those profits are calculated AFTER all the taxes are deducted. fact: BP has more than 80 thousand employees.

figure: US gasoline price is less than $3 per gallon. figure: US dwindling gasoline sales are still way above 300 million gallons a day, or 100 billion gallons per year. figure: the taxes, including federal, state, and local, are around 0.5 $ per gallon. figure: 50 billions in taxes on gas collected each year.

fact: the US gasoline price is lower than the lowest price in the EU, where taxes can make up as much as 75% of the pump price in some countries. fact: the european states collect their fair share of taxes on gas each year.

are the oil companies greedy? yes. but they contribute many billions in taxes, before drawing the bottom line under their profits. and after that, their products help bringing other many billions to the developed nations’ budgets. and they feed millions of families – not only their employees’, but also their contractors’ employees, and the road carriers’, etc.

when a disaster like this one in the gulf of mexico happens, i’d like to know: whose interest is to threat BP with hundreds of millions in fines for criminal charges PER DAY, and many other billions in damages? they were idiotic – they have to pay for that, sure. they already earmarked 20 billions of dollars for this – more than their whole profit for the last year. what about the US budget? and the UK budget? how much of the public funds will be spent to help cleaning the environment and supporting those directly impacted by pollution? how much of those tens and hundreds of billions collected in taxes over the years were set aside for crises like this?

ok. go ahead. ruin BP with fines. never mind about their fiscal contributions. split it among the other oil industry sharks. then go ahead with the cheap gasoline in america (who needs taxes like they have in the EU?). and with the expensive gasoline in europe (can we all be as irresponsible as the americans?). pour all those gas tax billions into the general budgets of america and europe, and then allow big chunks of these budgets returning to friendly sharks – those who spend most on lobbying and campaigns must, of course, be considered the friendliest; just ask any politician.

you care about the comfort of your car. and about the environment, too, and those poor oil-smeared pelicans. i say you’d better care about the way your tax money is spent.