Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
It kind of makes you wonder where the hell all the money goes. I feel tempted to say something about big corporations and those damn 1%ers because honestly I have no idea.
Everyone seems to have less money and everything seems to cost more. Even people who have jobs are getting smaller raises. The money isn't just disappearing into thin air, it must be going somewhere. I'd guess it is going into the pockets of the shareholders and executives at the companies that sell us the goods. Money isn't like that missing sock that just mysteriously goes missing in the dryer.
Ok CP, time for some violent upheaval so that we can remake society.
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This is simple economics. The fact of the matter is, whether people like to hear this or not, oil and gas companies employ a lot of people in Calgary, and they pay annual bonuses, stock and provide other benefits. When the price of oil crashes, the company selling 100 barrels a day feels that shock if it hasn't protected its' price. The company makes less money, so it lays people off, reduces wages, cuts raises and bonuses, distributes less stock and cuts benefits programs. All of these impacts in an act of survival affect the local economy. Local businesses see less business as a result, and the trickle down effect is real. Those businesses make less money, and less money is available for staff, people and the general economy. Disposable income falls. It is all related.
You want to know where the money went? It went to all the downstream consumers of energy that used to be paying over $100/bbl for Alberta oil, or equally importantly but never discussed- paying over $3/mcf for Alberta natural gas, who can now get oil for $50/bbl (or, $28/bbl in February) or just over $1 for natural gas. Those companies, consumers, manufacturers, governments who used to purchase this energy, are keeping that money that they otherwise would have paid to Albertan energy companies to produce and distribute that energy. More specifically, that money is in the United States.
Meanwhile, governments have in fact raised taxes in all of those areas already mentioned in this thread. So people, and I use this term as a general application of course, have a reducing pool of disposable income as a group but this shrinkage is compounded by the increasing tax burdens among this same group.