Well that didn't take long...

Bill O'Reilly made the link to national security and called for the feds to consider taking over oil companies if they don't reform their evil ways of making money in a free market. He also went one further and said that the oil execs should be jailed for war profiteering. This is on top of his accusations of price gouging, and other nonsense. Sorry but I caught all these on his radio show so I can't link to anything. Bad reporting, I know, but this is a blog.

I don't know much about Bill so I can't discuss him in general. On this point though...One, how can you be "gouged" on a voluntary purchase? I can't be gouged on M&M's because I can choose not to buy them. Now, maybe, maybe I could be "gouged" on potable water after a disaster, but that's another discussion. Two, he also said the goverment was in league with oil companies because higher gas prices mean more revenue due to the gas tax. Except...gas taxes are mill levies, meaning they're static. If the tax is $.15 a gallon then it's $.15 on $1, and $.15 on $3. If anything, higher gas prices mean less consumption, and that leads to less revenue. Maybe that's while we'll see the government "save" us from this crisis. The good news is that as gas prices go up, the percentage of that price that's because of taxes goes down. Meaning that our already global low in gas tax as a percentage goes down even more. See, it's fun to play with math. Fianlly, "war profiteering?" How about Google, they're making a profit? Or any of the other of the 5000+ public companies that are making money. In fact the market has been on a bull run for years, and is now approaching "longest in history" status. Personally I think this shows just how strong and resiliant our country is. But "war profiteering" now he's accusing people of crimes...for making money...legally. Oh well, here we go...