Tuesday, April 29, 2008

BP and Shell profits - twat comment of the day

Listening to a discussion on BP and Shell's profits at lunchtime I heard a comment that just about had me careering in to a bus I was so enraged. Some twat was arguing that the high taxes on petrol are protecting us from the price hikes. His argument goes something like:

We have very high taxes on fuel, unlike the Americans. So when we get a price rise of say 4p in a litre of fuel we hardly notice it because it is only a c.0.4% rise. However because Americans pay so little for their fuel a 4p rise is the equivalent of a 10% rise to them and so affects them more.


Where do the BBC find these idiots! I'm getting fleeced but its OK because it makes price rises seem lower, WTF are they on?

4 comments:

Vindico said...

You WILL bend over, and you WILL like it!

Considering HM treasury is raking in the extra cash from VAT on these high prices, how about they hand some if it back? The greenies can't argue since the high prices will be having the same discouraging affect, simple the tax wont be exacerbating the problem.

Oh, but then Darling/Brown needs a few bob to hand back to low earners to compensate for his horrendous cock-up of the 10p band abolition. What a mess.

Simon Fawthrop said...

Unfortunately Brown, Darling and the Geenies all start from the premise that they they own all the money and allow us to keep some of it, so it isn't a case of handing it back. No, having wrung more money out of us their job is to find new ways to waste it.

Mark Wadsworth said...

4p is 4% actually. It's a good point actually, but brings me back to my favourite topic 'Why VAT is the worst tax', in other words, if there is inflation, the tax take goes up, so it exacerbates economic swings. What's double-bad for the producer/consumer is good for the graspring State.

Simon Fawthrop said...

Bugger, that will teach me to rush off a post between meetings