19 June 2008
Windfall
I agree with Craig Pizonka, whose letter to the editor appeared in the June 19, 2008, Wall Street Journal, that a windfall profits tax on large oil companies is ludicrous. The recent high price of crude is not a windfall for enterprises that have invested their capital for many decades in finding and developing deposits of a critical natural resource. Nor is the income earned by Senator Obama and other writers a windfall for the work they have devoted to producing their essays and literature.
The high value of oil is, more accurately, a windfall for the nations whose property covers those hydrocarbon resources. Alas, we cannot tax them; we are limited to charging consumers, for example at the gasoline pump.
Major oil companies as well as successful authors intend to be compensated for their investments of capital and effort. If Mr. Pizonka and I were to earn a return on our letters to the editor, that would be a true windfall.
I agree with Craig Pizonka, whose letter to the editor appeared in the June 19, 2008, Wall Street Journal, that a windfall profits tax on large oil companies is ludicrous. The recent high price of crude is not a windfall for enterprises that have invested their capital for many decades in finding and developing deposits of a critical natural resource. Nor is the income earned by Senator Obama and other writers a windfall for the work they have devoted to producing their essays and literature.
The high value of oil is, more accurately, a windfall for the nations whose property covers those hydrocarbon resources. Alas, we cannot tax them; we are limited to charging consumers, for example at the gasoline pump.
Major oil companies as well as successful authors intend to be compensated for their investments of capital and effort. If Mr. Pizonka and I were to earn a return on our letters to the editor, that would be a true windfall.
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