The price of gasoline at the pump is not caused by the President, but by the greedy unregulated oil corporations.

        One of the basic elements of the Reason-Based Taxation solution is that corporations are entitled to a ten percent profit on pre-tax revenue; many corporations struggle to make even a 5% or 3% profit. R.B.T. specifies that any profits above 10% are taxed at 50 percent, no loopholes. (The details here are one reason that the text of the R.B.T. document runs four pages.)

• British energy giant Shell reported a record quarterly profit of $9.13 billion for the quarter ending 31 March 2022 – nearly triple the $3.2 billion reported in the same quarter last year and beating out its previous record from 2008; the massive profit comes despite the company having to write down $3.9 billion for its decision to exit operations in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. — google search

• Shell revenue for the quarter ending 31 March 2022 was $83.164 billion, a 40.68% increase year-over-year. — Macrotrends LLC

The math is very clear (but you can skip to the result if you want to.)
        Divide the $13.03B profit by the $83.164B revenue and it comes out as 15.667% profit!
        Thus 5.667% excess profit times the $83.164B revenue comes out as $4,712,903.80.
        Multiply that figure times 50% and it will cost Shell $2.356B in taxes under R.B.T.
        – an amount paid to both the greedy shareholders - times two - and to the taxpayers

RESULT #1 = $4,712,903.80 in excess profit for just three months

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         So I also looked at ExxonMobil USA

• Exxon Mobil Corporation first-quarter 2022 earnings of $5.5 billion; first-quarter results included an unfavorable identified item of $3.4 billion associated with the planned exit from Russia Sakhalin-1; earnings excluding identified items were $8.8 billion, an increase of more than $6 billion versus the first quarter of 2021

• Exxon Mobil website shows first-quarter 'cash flow' of $48 billion and earnings of $23.040 billion for profits of 47.9%.

• The Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) column on SeekingAlpha shows total revenues of $309.269 billion and 'gross profit' of $98.367 billion

Here's the math (or skip ahead)
        Divide the $98.367B profit by the $309.269B revenue and it comes out as 31.80% profit! - twice what Shell made.
        Thus 21.80% excess profit times the $309.269B revenue comes out as $6,742,064.20.
        Multiply that figure times 50% and it will cost ExxonMobil $3.371B in taxes under R.B.T.
        – an amount paid to both the greedy shareholders - times two - and to the taxpayers

RESULT #2 = $6,742,064.20 in excess profit for just three months

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        While families on tight budgets struggle to pay the sky-high price of gas at the pump, these five oil companies more than tripled their profits in the first quarter of 2022: Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips brought in an average of over 200 percent more in profits than in the first quarter of 2021 – a total of more than $35 billion in profits in just three months.

• Shell’s first quarter profits were 180 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2021.
Shell made $19.3 billion in total profits in 2021 on revenue of $272.657B (Shell bought back $8.5 billion in stocks).

• ExxonMobil’s first quarter profits were 220 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2021.
ExxonMobil made $23 billion in total profits in 2021 on revenue of $285.64B (ExxonMobil pledged $30 billion in stock buy backs).

• Chevron’s first quarter profits were 280 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2021.
Chevron made $15.6 billion in total profits in 2021 on revenue of $162.465B (Chevron plans $10 billion in stock buy backs by the end of 2022).

• BP’s first quarter profits were 140 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2021.
BP made $12.8 billion in total profits in 2021 on revenue of $164.195B (BP expanded its stock buyback plan to $2.5 billion in 2022).

• ConocoPhillips’ first quarter profits were 380 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2021.
ConocoPhillips made $8 billion in total profits in 2021 on revenue of $48.3B (ConocoPhillips plans $10 billion in stock buy backs in 2022).

These five oil corporations made $78.7 billion in total profits on combined revenue of $933.257 billion in 2021.

RESULT #3 = 2021 $78.7B total profits were only 8.43% of revenue in 2021, but much higher in the first quarter of 2022.

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• Shell first-quarter 2022 revenue was $83.164 billion with quarterly profit of $9.13 billion

• ExxonMobil first-quarter 2022 'cash flow' was $48 billion with quarterly profit of $23.040 billion

• Chevron first-quarter 2022 revenue was $52 billion with quarterly profit of $6.3 billion

• BP first-quarter 2022 cash flow was $51.220 billion with quarterly profit of $6.2 billion

• ConocoPhillips first-quarter 2022 revenue was $19.29 billion with quarterly profit of $4.3 billion

RESULT #4 = combined first-quarter 2022 revenue of $253.674B and total profits of $48.97B compute as 19.3% profits, for 9.3% in excess profits – which were generated entirely by corporate war-profiteering: $23.59B extracted from American consumers because the pirates of Wall Street are unregulated.

[copyright 2022 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]

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