TV Commercial at YouTube
Chevron Employee: “Last year, Chevron made a lot of money…”
Blue Collar Man: “Where does it go?!” (demanding tone)
Poster: “Oil companies should put their profits to good use.”
That’s right! Oil companies should put their profits to good use, just as every profitable company should put its profits to good use. But what Joseph representing the Blue Collar Man in the commercial means by “good” and what the audience this commercial is intended to placate means by “good” are very different than what most working, thinking people mean by “good”. Chevron is speaking to people who think they have a rightful claim on Chevron’s profits – people who truly believe that it’s not only “good” for Chevron to give its profits to other people but that it should be required to do so, even by law.
More troubling than this example of mainstreaming Marxism in America is Chevron’s giving in to it, that Chevron has accepted this socialist idea that its profits were not rightfully earned (maybe some weren't but that's for a different post). This commercial only legitimizes the case and promotes the wrongheaded idea to millions.
No one has the right to decide how somebody else spends (or saves) his/her money or his/her company's profits – at least not in America. Chevron’s refusal to defend its legitimate right and responsibility to earn profits - essentially its very right to exist - may soothe some public outrage in the short term but it only spells more trouble and eventual defeat over the long term. No need to fear Hugo Chavez nationalizing oil company assets – the oil companies are doing it themselves.
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