Should We Be Oiling Our PC's?

This isn't something I advocate - simply drawing attention to it to make a point. In light of rising gas prices and a huge retirement package for an Exxon CEO, via RedState I see some Senate Dems are calling for investigations into the oil industry:

to determine whether or not oil producers are conspiring to drive gas prices up

Now, see this regarding schools in California and technology, just one example where public schools are struggling to keep pace with technology, primarily due to cost.

FULLERTON, Calif. — Heather Sutherland was excited to learn her public school system was using laptop computers to teach elementary students such as her daughter. Until, that is, she found out parents were expected to pay the nearly $1,500 cost.

Yet, Steve Jobs, a former Kerry advisor with Al Gore on the board at Apple is 67th on the Forbes 400 list and Bill Gates is the perennial number 1.

Jobs, who is also CEO of Pixar Animation Studio, is worth $3.3 billion. The Top Ten: Bill Gates, $51,000,000,000

Funny, I haven't heard a peep about terrific tech industry profits out of the Dems who are supposed to be so strong on education, especially for inner city schools which often seem to struggle more than others in terms of bringing technology into the classroom.

I don't want any of the above to be investigated. But when the Senate launches politically motivated industry investigations based solely on the political correctness of the industry, it needs to be pointed out.

The NY Times has  a piece on it today.

With oil prices hitting a high this week and prices at the pump topping $3 a gallon in many places, Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic Senate candidate in Minnesota, is making the issue the centerpiece of her campaign. Ms. Klobuchar says it "is one of the first things people bring up" at her campaign stops.

To varying degrees, Democrats around the country are following a similar script that touches on economic anxiety and populist resentment against oil companies.

Comments

[splashtc]

I suppose "red neck" profits are targets and "superior techie" profits are unquestionable.
So all this is really about the nerds vs.jocks. ?

[tester]

Its not about people being rich. Its about people being overly compensated. I think you are comparing apples and oranges.

How are the other Exxon workers fairing?

As a Exxon stock holder, one has to be somewhat annoyed.

[tester]

Besides that its not just Dems that are bitching.

[Laertes]

Has "bill gates is rich" joined "Michael Moore is fat" as a standard wingnut nonsequitur argument of choice?

[warrenb]

You cannot compare technology to Oil. What you fail to understand is that the way a Company like Microsoft make their money is on the LICENSE fee. That is a small percentage of the total cost of a PC. Microsoft is not in the business of selling PC's. They are in the business of selling and "renewing" the license to run their operating system. This license fee is TIGHTLY fixed UNLIKE the price of oil which seems to go nowhere but up on a daily basis. Do your homework before using such a nonsenical analogy.

[splashtc]

excuse me but-seems every year there are new upgrades. It's the techies that have everyone by the nuts. Buy a 3,000 system today and watch it become obsolete in a year.

[Tosh]

"Funny, I haven't heard a peep about terrific tech industry profits"

Most of Jobs and Gates' wealth is from ownership, not wage income. Their wealth isn't extracted from shareholders like the Exxon fellow did.

No more meaning to "fiduciary duty" it seems.

[Mr. K.]

Prices for technology drop year over year and you get more value for similarly priced hardware on a nearly monthly basis. The average PC that can do email, surf the internet, organize photos... everything the average middle class family would want to do now costs a few hundred dollars. When the first PCs came out you would have spent several thousand dollars for the amount of computing power we have in our MP3 players today.

Let me know when the oil companies pass that equivalent amount of savings in terms of gasoline. If Moore's Law were applied to automobiles, gas should cost 1 cent a gallon and our cars would get oh, 1,000 miles per gallon. Meanwhile, Mr. Exxon gets over 100,000 dollars a day to basically nothing to improve his product, as far as I can tell.

[Pug]

Gates is the founder of Microsoft. Jobs was the founder of Apple and several other ventures. John D. Rockefeller was the founder of Exxon's predecessor and Lee Raymond was a hired hand. There's a difference between a founder and a hired hand. Figure it out.

[Laertes]

Let's zoom out just a little bit and examine the framing here: Democrats hate ebil right-wing oil companies and love good left-wing tech companies.

That's the assumption underlying this article, right?

It's nonsense.

Recall, for instance, that it was Clinton's justice department that was vigorously pursuing antitrust actions against Microsoft. Once the Bushistas took over, the suit was back-burnered and eventually settled in a sweetheart deal for pennies on the dollar.

[tester]

And now you have Specter considering a windfall tax on oil companies.