The "misery-profit" connection of US elite

The rise in gas prices following hurricane Katrina, reveals once again the tendency of corporate America (in this case the oil companies) and the American elite, to convert every human disaster into a profit making opportunity- (just like they are doing in Iraq).

This new human disaster also reveals the hypocrisy of the US mainstream media, which is condemning the looting by those who are stranded in the city of New Orleans (most of whom didn’t have enough resources to move out before the storm, disasters often don’t affect the rich) even as they ignore the larger scale looting that is going on all over the country by these oil companies. Quarterly profits for some of the top oil companies were up by over 50% or more this year, yet they still use the excuse of "supply and demand" in justifying the high price, as if every one, including people struggling to pay their rent, are equal players in the oil market!

Exxon Mobil Corp. announced that its revenue totaled more than $82 billion in the first three months of the year, which amounts to profits being up by 44%Quarterly profits for Conoco Phillips Inc. were up about 80 percent compared with the corresponding quarter last year; Royal Dutch Shell Group 28 percent, and BP PLC 35 percent. Bush’s recent energy bill gave these oil companies the biggest chunk of subsidies, amounting in the billions, to top off their profit figures, as icing on a cake.

A product (oil) that is monopolistically supplied by a few dominant corporations and which has inelastic demand (because it has no substitutes in popular usage), and the sale of which results in record profits for its sellers, can never have simple "supply and demand" determine its rightful price.

Another fact that this storm revealed about the American elite and its "misery-profit" connection is that their grip on power is uneasy and tenuous and is lost easily. A day after the storm they lost control of the city, this tells us in a subtle though succinct way that when misery brings people together, tyranny loses out fast.