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Originally Posted by Mavdog
mcd's isn't necessaily "unhealthy", it's those that abuse it that get unhealthy. too much of most anything is unhealthy imo. if one eats mcd's to much, they can exercise to mitigate the affects. that doesn't work for tobacco.
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I think the decline in smoking shows that it's already taxed higher than drinking. The "can't be offset" argument isn't very good. Sun tanning is unhealthy and can't be offset. Same for excessive caffeine. If someone invents a pill to offset the hazards of smoking, you'd be all for reducing the taxes? I don't think your liberal bretheren would be with you on that.
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oh, you're discussing the oil concessions not the private equity? OK.
the oil co. have leases on public lands, and some of those leases are at a few $ a yr. let me repeat that, a few $ per year.. they should pay a fair price for the ability to make millions of dollars from that right. a fair price, not an exorbinant price. that's pretty easy for even a "simple man".
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who set the price, who decides it's fair, and how does taxing someone after they make money make up for the crappy deal we struck with them in the first place?
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if you're just a simple man, then everything is "a fancy pants argument", right?
the federal govenment is the steward of the public goods. it IS their job to ensure that the groups provided exclusive right to extract from those public properties pay a fair price for that right. if they are making an abnormal (some would say it's an obscene) profit from paying a ridiculously low amount for that right then it is reasonable to "tax the crap" out of them.
pretty easy concept for anyone, simple person or not...
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I'm not that simple. Seems to me the sellers of the pet rock make more money off their investments than the oil companies. Sounds like you just want to turn companies that do a good job into government servants.
It might be a simple enough concept for me if you'd clarify your position. Sometimes you're talking about how much money they are raking in as evil, then you're saying you're not talking about how much they sell it for, and now you're talking just saying you don't like the deal they made some time ago to get the oil out. If you decide ten years from now that the house you sold in the 80's just sold in 2006 for an obscene amount of profit for whomever sold it, and you look back at the rediculously low price you sold it for, should you be able to go get money from whomever it was that did such an awsome job buying and selling? Heck no. The most you should be able to do is do a better job sellling your next house.