Letters to the Editor
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Let's assume that the holiday does what the deniers say - pass-through payment of the tax from consumers through oil companies
There are still tangible benefits to this idea -- psychological benefits.
Behavioral economics will tell you that people make all sorts of irrational choices, repeatedly, and that intangible psychological effects move markets. People don't ignore sunk costs, don't account for inflation, buy into panics, etc.
And all this whining about oil companies making huge profits? Yes, they're huge in numbers, but please look at their profit margin before running around like chicken little. And btw, where do these crazy profits go? Oh, that's right, to the shareholders in the forms of dividends, or back into the company to make more profits, for those shareholders. And who are the shareholders? Regular old Americans, with their 401K plans and mutual funds and Roth IRAs. When profits go up, the value of your portfolio goes up. So stf up.
Oh, and i'm a lawyer with an economics background.