The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Alex]

You can use the taxes to fund research into alternatives but if you cap prices those alternatives don't necessarily become economical until the commodity simply runs out.

If fuel cells become economical when gas hits $90 a barrel then it will never become economical if government caps it at $75 a barrel. Plus, unless you have a world government imposing a global cap, a cap will just encourage oil to flow away from capped nations to nations without caps and we begin to set up a repeat of what caused the power shortages in California back in 2000.

As for the salary, can you point me to the story on that iSm? I was shocked by that number myself and looking at the 2005 proxy for ExxonMobil it shows that Raymond's salary in 2005 was $4 million with a $4.9 million bonus. That's a lot of money but nowhere near $150,000/day (which would be $54 million/year). Are you sure you're not talking about his retirement package?