Tell me again why oil and gas companies have to make record profits or increased profits again?

[Samrob]

Isn't profit or loss still a part of capitalism? In times like these why can't utility corporations make a level profit or take a loss? They have been making record profits prior to COVID and still making them through COVID. I simply do not get why sometimes major businesses can't take a loss or roll back in profits during national and global emergencies. They still get government subsidies to make up their losses so why do they have to keep hurting the working men and women of this country by jacking up prices in a time of crisis. They take the subsidies, the bailouts and still gouge us!

[msongs]

1. oil company ceo's oligarchs no matter what country they live in nt

[Tomconroy]

2. They always make big profits when the price of oil is high.

I can't explain how it all works though.

[czarjak]

3. Darren Woods are you listening? Rich enough yet at your children's expense?

[smirkymonkey]

5. This is how coporations are. It is always about more, more, more and their obligation to the

fucking shareholder is primary above all (and the executive's compensation). They have no consideration for their obligation to society and the fact that the unforeseen things happen and the economy goes in cycles. It's always about more for them and if they don't get it, heads will roll. The modern corporation is a hearltess, soulless beast.

[Metaphorical]

7. The nature of greed

One of the most pernicious things to emerge from the 1970s was the Shareholder Ethos, which roughly stated is the belief that companies exist first and foremost for the shareholders, and that the purpose of the company is to maximize shareholder profit. This is a comparatively recent phenomenon, and it has had profoundly negative consequences. One side-effect of this was the tacit assumption that if you reward your senior executives - the ones who are most visibly connected with the sales contracts that fuel value (or with the stock price of sharew of the company, which have become an intrinsic proxy) - with shares of ownership (thus making them shareholders) then they will do everything they can to make money for themselves.

About the same time that all of this was happening, you also saw the rise of the cult of the CEO as Captains of Industry, and every five-year-old (boy) wanted to be a CEO when they grew up. It was absolutely no coincidence that this also kicked off the rise of the Republican Party and the Prosperity Gospel.

Fifty years later things have changed. Culturally, it's hard to find a narrative where the CEO is the hero anymore. Most are increasingly seen, rightly or wrongly, as rapacious egotistical psychopaths who believe in profits at any cost, no matter who it hurts. What's more, you are seeing more and more companies that have had to deal with the fallout of having sociopathic monsters at the helm, and who are recognizing that the rules are beginning to change. Unfortunately, the older the industry, the slower this realization is taking - petroleum, finance, the automotive sector, arms production, mineral and timber extraction, farming and so forth are torn between the two models. In the automotive sector, companies are moving to electric because their smaller, more nimble competitors are already there, and all of a sudden the kings of the world are getting their heads handed to them on a platter by the next generation, forcing them to recognize that their value is no longer due to some innate intelligence but simply to having dominated a niche for too long that is now changing.

The key moneymen in oil right now don't recognize this yet. They will soon enough.