Poor hit hardest by dearer oil (rising gas prices)

[sweetheart]

<snip>
.
This is said to be because of things such as rising school fees, council tax and energy prices. As richer people have bigger houses and cars, the argument goes, so they suffer more from the rise in petrol, gas and electricity prices.

But a study by John Hawksworth, the chief economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers, shows that the rise in general inflation caused by oil prices has primarily affected the poorest third of the population because they spend a greater proportion of their income on energy than the better off.
.
<snip>

http://money.guardian.co.uk/utilities/story/0,,1866448,00.html

Rising energy prices, as energy supply is privatized, are not seen as regressive taxes, but were they
not privatized, (as it sort of the truth of the matter given the massive public subsidies), then a
deliberate regressive tax has been applied.

[INdemo]

1. The EPA and the oil companies teamed up

to drive out the Independents..
Several years ago the EPA went around in every state and told the Independent gas station owner that their storage tanks needed to be upgraded. In some cases those storage tanks were new but yet didn't meet the EPA specs..The cost to upgrade was astronomical...Many stations closed..then along came the big oil companies,took over those independent stations and in many cases were able to get a wavier or a least an extension of time to replace those tanks.(EPA Standards were relaxed under Bush)Many of those original tanks are still in use but this scheme by the EPA/Big Oil was the last hurdle for Big Oil companies to take total control.

[Jcrowley]

2. Who benefits?

Oil and Defense CEOs Pocket the Spoils

CEOs in the defense and oil industries have been able to translate war and rising oil prices into personal jackpots, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, Executive Excess 2006.

OIL BARONS: With Americans now paying over $3 per gallon, petroleum profiteers are raking in nearly three times the pay of CEOs in comparably sized businesses. In 2005, the top 15 U.S. oil CEOs got a 50% raise since 2004. They now average $32.7 million, compared with $11.6 million for all CEOs of large U.S. firms.

Executive pay at U.S.-based oil companies also far outpaced pay at oil companies based outside the United States. BP and Royal Dutch Shell paid their CEOs only one-eighth what their U.S. counterparts collected — just $5.6 and $4.1 million in 2005, respectively — even though both companies operate in the same global marketplace as their U.S.-based competitors.

CEO William Greehey of Valero Energy took home the oil industry’s biggest executive pay rewards in 2005, pocketing $95.2 million. The average construction worker at an energy company would have to work 4,279 years to equal what Greehey collected last year.

http://www.faireconomy.org/EE06

Through various "costs" the American people are the most heavily taxed folks around especially when compared to median income. Much of this goes into corporate subsidy programs and of course the War Department.

[sweetheart]

3. they say not to attribute..

.to malice what can be otherwise explained by stupidity; occams razor and all.

But the stupid coincidence that a wealthy barony has been uplifted on the backs of pushing
a few million serfs downwards, a new wealth tax gifted the dukes a land fife each shall
be parcelled out by order of the king, the emperor grants 1000 households worth of land and
1000 Cows.. taken each away from a serf. They've virtualized the old physical feudal system
of grants and tax levys, hiring private thugs to enforce the new private baronies.

[Jcrowley]

4. You've

a nice way with words expressing precisely in a few words the condition of our condition.

They've virtualized the old physical feudal system
of grants and tax levys, hiring private thugs to enforce the new private baronies.

Not a fan of Occam's Razor theory. If these folks who are ruling us are so stupid why can't we outsmart them? And either way the key components are viciousness, guile and drive to power.

Albert Einstein says:
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

[sweetheart]

5. ok so its malice

Then the gloves of opposition are off.

welcome to DU. :toast:

[sweetheart]

6. people are up in arms about 'obvous' regressive taxes

but when a not-obvious one is flashed in their faces,
they miss it for what it is, and let it fly.

[Jcrowley]

7. Wealth inequality is vast and growing

Wealth inequality is vast and growing

by Sylvia Allegretto with research assistance from Rob Gray

The 10th edition of The State of Working America will be released on Labor Day weekend. This biennial publication presents a comprehensive and historical analysis of the living standards of Americans. A recurring theme, which became more pronounced with this edition, is increasing inequality. Inequality in the United States is on the rise, whether measured in terms of wages, family incomes, or wealth and is much higher than that of other advanced countries.



The figure is one such measure of inequality—the ratio of the wealth of the richest 1% to that of a household with typical wealth in the middle. As the figure indicates, wealth inequality has not only persisted, but also grown much larger over time. The richest 1% of wealth holders had 125 times the wealth of the typical household in 1962; by 2004 they had 190 times as much or $14.8 million in wealth for the upper 1% compared to just $82,000 for the household in the middle fifth of wealth.

http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20060823