We Are Wall Street

MikeNH · November 2, 2011

I bet ya that if these lazy protesters spent even half the time they have trespassing on job hunting, they might find themselves gainfully employed.

Roofer · November 2, 2011

So, a company supplies something that is in the highest demand in the world, period..... and they can't make record profits?

Do you realize the mark up on everything you buy retail? Do you know how many tax dollars come from those huge profits? Do you realize how many jobs are involved in oil, let alone how many people are put to work just from their tax dollars? It's probably beyond comprehension.

Roofer · November 2, 2011

I bet ya that if these lazy protesters spent even half the time they have trespassing on job hunting, they might find themselves gainfully employed.

Exactly. They don't want to work. Look at the youtube vids. They want these people to support them because they make a lot of money. It's simple, I want what you have because you have it and I don't.

ChevyTech77 · November 2, 2011

So, a company supplies something that is in the highest demand in the world, period..... and they can't make record profits?

Do you realize the mark up on everything you buy retail? Do you know how many tax dollars come from those huge profits? Do you realize how many jobs are involved in oil, let alone how many people are put to work just from their tax dollars? It's probably beyond comprehension.

Right, keep believing that. They make record profits because some douchebag on Wall Street THINKS the price of a barrel of oil is going to be $XXX tomorrow and pushes the prices up to that rate to do nothing more than fill the pockets of all that are involved. The price of oil is so stupidly inflated and THAT is beyond comprehension.

ChevyTech77 · November 2, 2011

I bet ya that if these lazy protesters spent even half the time they have trespassing on job hunting, they might find themselves gainfully employed.

Exactly. They don't want to work. Look at the youtube vids. They want these people to support them because they make a lot of money. It's simple, I want what you have because you have it and I don't.

The same principle that has run this country sense the '60's. If you're so against it, along with everybody else who is, why hasn't anything changed?

old-chevy-dude · November 2, 2011

I bet ya that if these lazy protesters spent even half the time they have trespassing on job hunting, they might find themselves gainfully employed.

well it depends.. right now jobs are hard to come by. My wife had been out of work since the end of 2008, (just started a part-time job 3 weeks ago) she applied to 400 plus a month nearly every month (she kept very accurate records) she did get a few temp positions as an office manager or clerk, but nothing in her field (manufacturing accounting department manager).

She was signed up with nearly 30 temp agencies, on the EDD job site, had her resume posted on every job site out there, and actively applied to hundreds each month, and barely got anything in the way of call backs. I can name at least a dozen other people in the same boat, from IT guys to Restaurant Managers, to Office persons.

Right now companies have the ability to pick and choose, there are more workers than jobs, so they can take their time, pick and choose and hold out for a better (in their mind) candidate.

Also a lot of companies had to tighten up in 2009 and discovered they could run leaner and be just as productive, my company falls into that category, we leaned out our work force, and it's cheaper for us to pay a few people (who are more than willing) to work overtime to pick up the slack rather than fill that position with a new body.

The other thing to consider is a lot of private companies are on salary freezes (we have been since 2009) which also means hiring freeze for new positions that might be needed but can't be filled. The problem with being on a salary freeze for a great many people, is that your salary is frozen, but your expenses are not, I can personally state that my GROSS hasn't changed since Feb 2008 (my last raise) but my NET has dropped by over $200 per week, as the cost of my medical/dental/vision has gone up, as have the tax with-holdings, same gross but I bring home $9600 a year less, had we not been on a salary freeze; based on my last 3 performance reviews I would have received 3 raises of at least 5% per year and would have a gross that was about $15,000 higher than I currently do to offset the cost of living increases. But it hasn't happened, and when it does I will still be behind the eight ball because I will not ever get retroactive raises, they will just move forward from the point the salary freeze is removed.

And of course the last thing, and the most poignant thing to consider is that while there are a lot of "lower end" type jobs (I just saw an ad for 1500 jobs picking fruit for $150 at day) a good percentage of the people out of work that are protesting with OWS would never consider working such a low level job as they feel it is beneath them, as we have developed into a society of entitlement and most people wouldn't do work like that.

I love my wife, but I know that unless she was desperate, she would never consider it, where for me I would jump on it if I had no work regardless of how desperate I was. I've done worse jobs for a lot less money in times of hardship.

So to make a global statement that the lazy protesters if they looked would find work is rather ignorant of a great many of the things that are keeping people unemployed. Fact is times are tough, and as such people need to humble themselves and tighten up and do what it takes to make sure they have what they need to survive, but yes I agree most won't.

txab · November 2, 2011

So, a company supplies something that is in the highest demand in the world, period..... and they can't make record profits?

Do you realize the mark up on everything you buy retail? Do you know how many tax dollars come from those huge profits? Do you realize how many jobs are involved in oil, let alone how many people are put to work just from their tax dollars? It's probably beyond comprehension.

Right, keep believing that. They make record profits because some douchebag on Wall Street THINKS the price of a barrel of oil is going to be $XXX tomorrow and pushes the prices up to that rate to do nothing more than fill the pockets of all that are involved. The price of oil is so stupidly inflated and THAT is beyond comprehension.

You do also understand that our devalued dollar is one of the causes of high oil prices too, don't you? Oil is traded in US dollars, as the value of the $ goes down, it takes more $$ to buy that same barrel of oil. Get the value of the dollar back to where it should be, the price of oil will be down. The programs the Govt has implemented and is proposing are not going to help the dollar rise. Until we get a plan in place to pay off debt and live within our means, the Dollar will be not be stable

redjewel2ss · November 2, 2011

So, a company supplies something that is in the highest demand in the world, period..... and they can't make record profits?

Do you realize the mark up on everything you buy retail? Do you know how many tax dollars come from those huge profits? Do you realize how many jobs are involved in oil, let alone how many people are put to work just from their tax dollars? It's probably beyond comprehension.

Right, keep believing that. They make record profits because some douchebag on Wall Street THINKS the price of a barrel of oil is going to be $XXX tomorrow and pushes the prices up to that rate to do nothing more than fill the pockets of all that are involved. The price of oil is so stupidly inflated and THAT is beyond comprehension.

ok, you go out, spend millions of dollars to drill a well, and call me when you've finally paid off your initial investment. if you take into account initial capital, monthly operating expenses, and the current price of oil, it can take between 2 and 4 years before your no longer in the red. this is what i do for a living, i evaluate the value of a well that we have drilled so that we can book the reserves to the SEC. i come across wells that have a ROR of 0% all the way up to sometimes 30%. for the most part we average about a 12% ROR annually. thats only a 12% profit at current oil prices! Apple makes a 43% profit off of every combined product they sell! if oil was $20 per barrel again, me and 400 million other people worldwide would be unemployed. supply and demand is what drives the prices of goods. if the countries of OPEC opened the chokes on their wells to increase supply, that douchebag on wall street will lower the price, and everyone calls him a hero, instead. i can tell you right now, every US based independent oil company is running at max capacity, and continuously trying to increase our domestic supply by drilling for new "unconventional" reserves. its foreign countries (and huge companies like Exxon that can afford the billions of dollars invested in the right location) that sit there and flow oil at a constant rate to determine how rich they make themselves.

i think the price of a new vehicle is stupidly inflated and beyond comprehension, but you of course would debate me over it, because you have more experience than me when it comes to whats involved to make one.

http://tek-bull.com/2011/05/a-gallon-of-ga...-gets-what.html

Oil traders: These are the “evil” conspirators who are always blamed by the people for raising and lowering gas prices. In reality they have nothing to do with the inflation or de-flation of gas prices. They take a gamble every day.

An oil trader makes a stock investment “hoping” that they will make money. They look at the charts, and then they make an assessment and invest. They only make money if they got their “guess” right. For example let’s say that a barrel of gas is $100 right now. An investor comes in and says “I think the oil prices will go up tomorrow, I will buy 100 shares of gas” the following day if the barrel of oil went up to $105, voila! They make money. $500 dollars out of a “lucky guess” but just as simple as they make money, they can also lose money, many times investors have guessed wrong, and they invest thousands of dollars that gas prices will go up, and during the middle of the night a scientist finds a huge “Oil Reserve” that lowers gas prices by $10 per barrel etc. So in reality, the Oil Traders have nothing to do with inflation and gas prices.

If we really want to save money on gas, we need more oil exploration, more research into Fuel Efficient vehicles, more research on alternate fuel methods, and better technology for the retrieval of oil. All of which cost money, and if you think that the “big” oil companies don’t care about finding a better way to retrieve the fuel or alternate gas source, you are mistaken, Exxon has thrown millions of dollars into the research like Blue Fuel from Spain to find a better fuel for the future.

redjewel2ss · November 2, 2011

I bet ya that if these lazy protesters spent even half the time they have trespassing on job hunting, they might find themselves gainfully employed.

well it depends.. right now jobs are hard to come by. My wife had been out of work since the end of 2008, (just started a part-time job 3 weeks ago) she applied to 400 plus a month nearly every month (she kept very accurate records) she did get a few temp positions as an office manager or clerk, but nothing in her field (manufacturing accounting department manager).

She was signed up with nearly 30 temp agencies, on the EDD job site, had her resume posted on every job site out there, and actively applied to hundreds each month, and barely got anything in the way of call backs. I can name at least a dozen other people in the same boat, from IT guys to Restaurant Managers, to Office persons.

Right now companies have the ability to pick and choose, there are more workers than jobs, so they can take their time, pick and choose and hold out for a better (in their mind) candidate.

Also a lot of companies had to tighten up in 2009 and discovered they could run leaner and be just as productive, my company falls into that category, we leaned out our work force, and it's cheaper for us to pay a few people (who are more than willing) to work overtime to pick up the slack rather than fill that position with a new body.

The other thing to consider is a lot of private companies are on salary freezes (we have been since 2009) which also means hiring freeze for new positions that might be needed but can't be filled. The problem with being on a salary freeze for a great many people, is that your salary is frozen, but your expenses are not, I can personally state that my GROSS hasn't changed since Feb 2008 (my last raise) but my NET has dropped by over $200 per week, as the cost of my medical/dental/vision has gone up, as have the tax with-holdings, same gross but I bring home $9600 a year less, had we not been on a salary freeze; based on my last 3 performance reviews I would have received 3 raises of at least 5% per year and would have a gross that was about $15,000 higher than I currently do to offset the cost of living increases. But it hasn't happened, and when it does I will still be behind the eight ball because I will not ever get retroactive raises, they will just move forward from the point the salary freeze is removed.

And of course the last thing, and the most poignant thing to consider is that while there are a lot of "lower end" type jobs (I just saw an ad for 1500 jobs picking fruit for $150 at day) a good percentage of the people out of work that are protesting with OWS would never consider working such a low level job as they feel it is beneath them, as we have developed into a society of entitlement and most people wouldn't do work like that.

I love my wife, but I know that unless she was desperate, she would never consider it, where for me I would jump on it if I had no work regardless of how desperate I was. I've done worse jobs for a lot less money in times of hardship.

So to make a global statement that the lazy protestors if they looked would find work is rather ignorant of a great many of the things that are keeping people unemployed. Fact is times are tough, and as such people need to humble themselves and tighten up and do what it takes to make sure they have what they need to survive, but yes I agree most won't.

i agree with pretty much everything you said. also, those that think they're above those lower end type jobs and still unemployed are people that majored in underwater basketweaving in college. i don't know too many companies in that line of work

Mike Rowe stated it pretty well in this youtube video:

ChevyTech77 · November 2, 2011

You do also understand that our devalued dollar is one of the causes of high oil prices too, don't you? Oil is traded in US dollars, as the value of the $ goes down, it takes more $$ to buy that same barrel of oil. Get the value of the dollar back to where it should be, the price of oil will be down. The programs the Govt has implemented and is proposing are not going to help the dollar rise. Until we get a plan in place to pay off debt and live within our means, the Dollar will be not be stable

So answer this question, how did the U.S. Dollar get so "devalued"?

ok, you go out, spend millions of dollars to drill a well, and call me when you've finally paid off your initial investment. if you take into account initial capital, monthly operating expenses, and the current price of oil, it can take between 2 and 4 years before your no longer in the red. this is what i do for a living, i evaluate the value of a well that we have drilled so that we can book the reserves to the SEC. i come across wells that have a ROR of 0% all the way up to sometimes 30%. for the most part we average about a 12% ROR annually. thats only a 12% profit at current oil prices! Apple makes a 43% profit off of every combined product they sell! if oil was $20 per barrel again, me and 400 million other people worldwide would be unemployed. supply and demand is what drives the prices of goods. if the countries of OPEC opened the chokes on their wells to increase supply, that douchebag on wall street will lower the price, and everyone calls him a hero, instead. i can tell you right now, every US based independent oil company is running at max capacity, and continuously trying to increase our domestic supply by drilling for new "unconventional" reserves. its foreign countries (and huge companies like Exxon that can afford the billions of dollars invested in the right location) that sit there and flow oil at a constant rate to determine how rich they make themselves.

i think the price of a new vehicle is stupidly inflated and beyond comprehension, but you of course would debate me over it, because you have more experience than me when it comes to whats involved to make one.

Do you have any idea on how much money GM spends in research and development as well? I don't agree on the prices of oil or my current truck but GM, and all auto manufactures just to start with, take it directly in the chin everytime those fuel prices go up. Once it was enough, to drive a near 100 year old company into bankruptcy. Now don't get me wrong, that wasn't the only reason that happened but I can nearly guarentee you that if gas prices wouldn't have hit the high spot they did back in '07 and '08, that GM most likely would have been able to weather that storm without bankruptcy.

redjewel2ss · November 2, 2011

Do you have any idea on how much money GM spends in research and development as well? I don't agree on the prices of oil or my current truck but GM, and all auto manufactures just to start with, take it directly in the chin everytime those fuel prices go up. Once it was enough, to drive a near 100 year old company into bankruptcy. Now don't get me wrong, that wasn't the only reason that happened but I can nearly guarentee you that if gas prices wouldn't have hit the high spot they did back in '07 and '08, that GM most likely would have been able to weather that storm without bankruptcy.

here's the reason:

http://www.rff.org/Publications/WPC/Pages/...-or-Mayhem.aspx

music · November 2, 2011

So let them control this countries economy because I drive a truck? That's cool.

The mid-eastern countries control the oil whether we buy it or not, but we control how *some* of our personal oil consumption by our vehicle selection and driving habits. Nobody forced me to buy a 5500 lb truck as a commuter, and I sure wouldn't own/drive it if the cost of fuel affected me providing for my family. Do you believe that the Saudi's "owe" us cheaper oil? They control most of the world's supply, and price it however they want. An American company would do the same, if they controlled it. The reason we don't get gouged more, is because the oil profits get invested back into the world economy (stocks, bonds, food production, etc). If they hurt the economy too much via high pricing, they lose money and customers. We are dancing to their tune, and will for as long as they control the major world oil supplies. This is why we need to move towards other forms of power (CNG, wind, nuclear, etc), but there is no silver bullet in the short term.

Edit: we're focusing on cars here, but the same concept flows through our entire economy. Food is far cheaper to produce and deliver by diesel-powered tractors at $4/gallon than it would be to do it manually and horse/carriage. The "economy of oil" cuts wide and deep, into everything about how we live today.

old-chevy-dude · November 2, 2011