The Blue Board

I will give you this. Gold, silver, crude oil, and several other commodities have also been driven way higher due to a weak dollar (inflation, which shows no signs of slowing down, especially with the enormous amount of debt were in with China).

I said "needs a car," didn't I?

I guess what my point is, if a low-income family is able to save any money every month, I doubt it'd be spent in the stock market. At least in my personal experience working with low-income families. Money is saved for new school clothes or a birthday present. I know I can't speak all low-income families, but that's just what I've come across. The stock market is the last thing on their minds.

And my point is, instead of putting your money in a rinky dink ass savings account earning next to nothing interest, you could invest in say a dividend reinvestment plan (as low as $50 per month) with a blue chip/capital efficient company and earn way more. To each his own, though.

You just said if a low income family could save every month, so I gave an example on how they could generate more money than with your typical savings account. And to be honest, based on your example, a car shouldn't be a necessity.

How would a car not be a necessity?

Still.. How would a car not be a must have? I drive 15 miles to work everyday. Solid 45 minutes in traffic (Fvck me). But I'm not walking. So I need my truck.

When the oil companies stop posting 10 billion dollar quarters and rationalizing themselves by saying they only making 7 cents a gallon on gas compared to 50 cents our government makes on taxes, then the price at the pump might come down.

Exxon makes 10+ billion a quarter in profit. Thats just nasty money. And our government has their hands all in it.

So a single mother doesn't need a vehicle to get back and forth to work? Is she suppose to walk the 5 miles to the imaginary job that's not there anymore? Most rural areas have no jobs and if you're lucky enough to find one chances are your aren't driving to it. I guess you have had to been in the situation to be even in the least be sympathetic. I agree in theory that putting money in stocks is a great thing. But let's be real. A single income mother,who works 50 hours a week after walking 5 miles to get there isn't going to spend the 50 bucks a week she has left on stocks. She's probably going to buy groceries. Simply put, my mother worked 2 job raising me by herself when my piece of shit father walked out on us. He was supposed to be the provider. He didn't. My mom busted her ass and struggled for 18 years to give me a head start. She did her job. There are 0 easy outs in that situation.

Ha. Sorry, I didn't mean to quote you. I think having a car is a necessity depending on location. If you live in a urban area with adequate public transit then a car wouldn't be a necessity. I drive 30 minutes everyday to school in my 20mpg '95 Toyota Camry, I feel ya.

On oil companies and their relations with every level of government, I don't want to even get started or else I'll freak. I've seen studies/reports how our subsidization and indirect costs associated with gas help bring the cost down as compared to a true cost, but I still haven't seen someone explain in relation to the fact that oil companies make profits that are much higher proportionally to the subsidies themselves. I don't know. Maybe someone will come in here and clarify.

Had to have been there? How about I was there. Your situation is no different than mine, except my pops was ghost from the get go. And, the reason why I'm saying that a car isn't a necessity in some situations is because it's not. Growing up, having a roof over my head, food on the table, and clothes on my back were the necessities. As far as a car was concerned, my moms use to catch the bus to work until she saved up enough money to cop her a '90 Geo Prizm.

It comes down to return on investment. Net profit is a worthless number to determine the success of a business. Compare the investment oil companies make to the investment companies with lower net profits make and you'll see that they're pretty much on par or even below companies in most other industries.

If one man invests $2,000 in a stock and gains 10% and another man invests $500 in the same stock, the net profit for the higher investment is greater, as is the risk, but the return isn't. When you divide those net profits among the billions of shareholders, it really does boil down to ROI and each investor simply gets their share of that. Plus, it isn't like the company is hoarding all of this money. Those net profits are always either, a) paid out to the shareholders, resulting in stonger 401k's or pensions for your average person, or b) reinvested in the economy, resulting in jobs somewhere. The profits don't ever go anywhere else.

Solid reason to vote.