Richard Disney

Here is another great vintage video showing some of the basics of capitalism. More school children need to see videos like this one made in 1949. Enjoy!

The money quote:

But it’s not only about the price of oil. Other costs are a factor — though they’ve remained relatively stable.

For example, federal and state taxes added 40 cents to a gallon of gas in the first three months of this year, roughly the same amount as they added four years ago.California’s 63.9 cents of tax is the nation’s highest, Alaska’s 26.4 cents the lowest. How the money is used varies from state to state, though the federal take helps to build and maintain highways and bridges.

Marketing and distribution costs — the tab for delivering gasoline from refiner to retailer — were 27 cents to start the year, only 6 cents above the cost four years ago.The cost of refining added 27 cents to a gallon in the first quarter of this year, a nickel less than what it added in 2004, according to the Energy Information Administration.That refining occurs at sprawling industrial complexes across the U.S., with most of the biggest along the Gulf Coast. Barrels of crude arrive each day by pipeline, ship and barge. The refineries, by heating, treating and blending the raw oil, turn out products like diesel and lubricating oil.And, of course, gasoline.

AP IMPACT: What makes up the price of gas? - Yahoo! News

Tags: gastax, gas taxes, oil, refineries, 63.9 cents, crude,

It is a shame that government officials at all levels cannot see that lowering gasoline taxes would help every American where it counts most…in the pocketbook! Story follows:

 

Sun Jun 15, 8:44 AM ET SAN DIEGO - If there’s pain at the pump in the U.S., Mexico may just have a remedy. A gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in San Diego retails for an average price of $4.61 a gallon. A few miles south, in Tijuana, it’s about $2.54 — even less if you pay in pesos.ADVERTISEMENTMore and more people appear to be taking advantage of the lower price.”I used to buy exclusively in the U.S. before gas started really going up,” said Patrick Garcia, a drama teacher at an elementary school in San Diego who lives in Tijuana. “Since then, I’ve been buying all my gas in Tijuana.”The lower prices mean a U.S. motorist could save almost $54 filling up a two-year-old Ford F150 pickup with a 26-gallon fuel tank in Mexico.The differential in diesel is even greater, selling at $5.04 a gallon in San Diego County and $2.20 in Tijuana.Paul Covarrubias, 26, who lives in Chula Vista and works in construction in San Diego, crosses the border each week just to refuel his dual-cab Ford F-250 pickup.”I fill it up with diesel in Tijuana for $60,” he said. “It would be almost twice that in San Diego.”Gas is cheaper in Mexico because of a government subsidy intended to keep inflationary forces in check.Still, international gas-buying trips don’t make sense for everyone. The wait getting back into the U.S. at the border in Tijuana frequently takes longer than two hours and cars can burn about a gallon of gas for each hour they idle.

San Diego drivers appreciate Mexico’s cheap gas - Yahoo! News

Tags: cheapgas, mexico, tijuana, san diego, gas under 3 dollars

Hat Tip: First Friday Collective

Hat Tip: Bookworm Room

By MARK STEYN in the OC Register

This past week’s issue of the Economist has a heart-rending vignette from one of the most ruthlessly capitalist industries on the planet:

“In 2006 EMI, the world’s fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free.”

“That was the moment we realized the game was completely up,” an EMI exec told the magazine. In the United States, album sales in 2007 were down 19 percent from 2006. Don’t blame me. I still buy plenty of CDs. But that’s because I like Doris Day, and every time I try to insert one of these newfangled MP3s into my fax machine it doesn’t seem to play. But if you’re not Mister Squaresville, and you dig whatever caterwauling beat combo those London hep cats are digging on their iPods, chances are you find the local record store about as groovy as the Elks Lodge.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Hat Tip: First Friday Collective

It is long but it is funny.

Hat Tip: Bob Beers’ Blog

Warren Buffett has proven to be a smart man in the area of business and predicting which businesses in which to invest earning himself and those close to him billions of dollars in profit. They don’t call Warren Buffett the “Oracle of Omaha” for nothing. Why then is Buffett so wrong when it comes to tax policy?

The Tax Foundation once again refutes the claim by Buffett that the “super rich” don’t pay enough in taxes. The Tax Foundation also refutes Buffett’s misguided views on the estate tax, his claims that he pays a lower percentage in tax than his secretary who makes $60,000 per year, and Buffett’s hypocracy in advocating the retention of the estate tax while himself avoiding paying estate tax through the use of varous foundations.

You know, there is nothing to prevent Warren Buffett from contributing more of his money directly to the Federal and State Government. There is no need for the elitist “super rich” Buffett to advocate forcing the rest of us to pay more taxes. I have no heartburn at all with increadibly wealthy people. In fact I don’t want to live in a country where a Warren Buffett or a Bill Gates cannot exist. I am disturbed when someone in Buffett’s position is advocating tax policy that prevents others from becoming as wealth as he is or passing their already fully taxed wealth on to whomever they choose.

If he feels so strongly about paying more taxes why is he repeatedly on record advocating using government power to force him and others to pay more in taxes?