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GAIA Host Collective
E-P, you say "#7 (irrelevant, but aims at the emotions)".
Irrevelant to what ?
One of the principal criticisms of the oil companies by the U.S. congress, newspapers, and average person is that the "oil companies" are getting big profits.
Question #7 points out that a significant share of these profits go to average people in the form of 401k returns, pensions, and other investments.
Irrelevant in general. Significant shares of ALL corporate profits go to pension funds, 401k's, etc. You might as well argue that the US taxpayer ought to support more wars, because war is good for the defense industry and many pension funds hold defense stocks. It's just special pleading, and deliberately misleading to boot.
If the merits of the oil industry (such as it living off an absolutely irreplaceable one-time gift from Nature) are such that the US citizens should insist on it paying more taxes for what it gets, then it should pay more taxes. We had this same argument around electric utilities, and decided that they didn't merit a guaranteed return either.