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Originally Posted by Bugs I think the Obama idea of taxing the oil companies to simply turn those dollars back over to the populace is a horrible idea and flies in the face of my idea of how a market should operate and the place of governments in said markets. |
The idea of taxing oil companies or any others because they happen to make a large profit is not what either candidate should support.
Tax is just a part of overall cost when a company sets it's price. A ten percent increase in tax will likely result in a ten percent increase in the cost of the product. Raising tax on a particular industry sounds good politically to some but I can't see where it will significantly reduce the price of the product.
Raising taxes is merely a method of punishing success. There are many companies that have performed well in the profit arena. Taxation of their profits will increase government revenue proportionally to the increase in their profits. To suggest these successful companies be further tapped for more revenues makes no sense. Should the approach of increasing tax on success be adopted, it only follows the government should reward none performing companies by granting tax breaks or bailouts. The recent bailouts of lending institutions is an example of what I believe is rewarding bad business practices.
Government regulation of business practices is a must but rewarding failure or punishing success based on profitability is an area the government has no business getting involved in.