Talk About Tone-Deaf
Exxon Chairman Gets $400 Million Retirement Package Amid Soaring Gas PricesI'm sorry. Now, I'm a hardcore, unappologetic captitalist, but this is just stupid. If these guys were working toward the goal of a nationalized oil industry, they couldn't have chosen a better move. I can only assume that, in this instance, the Liberals are correct (excuse me while I go get some mouthwash). These folks must be so out of touch with the people who buy their products that they live on another planet.
Exxon Made Record Profits in 2005
ABC News
April 14, 2006— Soaring gas prices are squeezing most Americans at the pump, but at least one man isn't complaining.
Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion, and its retiring chairman appears to be reaping the benefits.
Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.
Last November, when he was still chairman of Exxon, Raymond told Congress that gas prices were high because of global supply and demand.
"We're all in this together, everywhere in the world," he testified.
Raymond, however, was confronted with caustic complaints about his compensation.
"In 2004, Mr. Raymond, your bonus was over $3.6 million," Sen. Barbara Boxer said.
That was before new corporate documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that revealed Raymond's retirement deal and his $51.1 million paycheck in 2005.
That's equivalent to $141,000 a day, nearly $6,000 an hour. It's almost more than five times what the CEO of Chevron made.
I don't begrudge anyone making as much money as their greedy little hearts desire, as long as they don't violate the law, but there is such a thing as sensitivity to the realities of the world. At a time when gasoline prices around the world have soared to historic highs (unadjusted for inflation), and people are strapped in their ability to pay those prices, there is a difference between what is legal and what is wise. There is a difference between what is legal and what is in good taste.
This kind of oblivious behavior will inevitable lead to growing pressure to restrict the salaries and perquisites of corporate executives by a Congress increasingly sensitive to the complaints of their constituents. This move definitely belongs in the "What were they thinking?" category.
This kind of conspicuous consumption is just plain stupid. But then, looking at this guys picture, he looks like one of those oblivious idiots that were the fodder for so much of Thomas Nast's barbed political cartoons. He could be the poster child for the Socialist Worker's Party campaign.
Full Story: Big Oil Marching Toward Federal Control
What do you think?
To leave your opinion click on the word "COMMENT(S)" below
posted by Will Malven at 7:18 AM
9 Comments:
What's your problem? This is all about supply and demand. If you dont like it, dont buy it.
It is the free market at it's finest.
No Mr Anonymous it is not a free market it is known as an oligopoly.
"A market condition in which sellers are so few that the actions of any one of them will materially affect price and have a measurable impact on competitors."
To continue on my oligopoly statement...... Our government has created some many special tax provisions for these few oil companies that they destroy their competition. The smaller companies do not meet the requirements of most of the government subsidies, therfore they struggle through bad times, and pay off debts in good times. These behemoths control collect special subsidies when oil prices are low and then they gouge the consumer when oil prices are high. All these companies should no longer recieve any type of tax credits and furthermore payback all subsidies credited to them in the past 5 years.
Deaf freelancer,
You are dead wrong. The first comment is completely correct, although I am sure it was made in a pitiful attempt at sarcasm.
I don't have a problem with free enterprise at it's finest. I didn't say a single thing about not liking "it." I am merely pointing out the lack of sensitivity these folks have to the tenor of the general political discourse.
I believe that gasoline is a bargain at the price. Adjusted for inflation, it lags far behind most other consumer products.
Will,
Never said gasoline was too high. I like the idea of high gasoline prices because that creates innovative alternatives such as methanol and bio-diesel(which I am a consumer of. The gouging I speak of is a collaboration of the "Final Four" gas companies in this country. They are given credits and incentives by the federal government to make meaningful strides in providing more affordable fuels....yet they pay single individuals in the company insane salaries (which is technically your indirect tax dollars). That is the problem. The are using my money to pay this character. So where am I dead wrong?
Deaf freelancer,
I dindn't intend to imply that, I was answering the first anonymous.
Where you are dead wrong is in the implication that there is some sort of price fixing dealings going on by "big oil." Oil and gas are commodities and their prices are controlled by supply and demand. Prices are high because supplies are strained and demand is great.
Will,
Gasoline supplies are at a 10 year high. The price of oil at the freighter in Saudi is less than $20 a barrel. This is all a fantasy football game ran up by profiteers funded by Oil compnies. Do the research and see that the futures are totally out of whack with the supplies.
Comment deleted due to plagiarism.
Liberals are plagiarizers and liars!
Raymond J. Learsy: The Oil Industry Is Driving Away With Our Future- The Norway Solution
"Adam Smith, Jr."
Not only are you a coward, afraid to use your own name, but you are also a plagiarizer. It is not permissible to post someone else's work as your own.
I have posted a link to the article you chose to copy.
If you want to post a link to an article, that is okay, but your act is contemptible and so transparent that I was able to tell as soon as I began reading it.
How like a liberal to take someone elses work without attribution.
Liberals are liars!
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