Thought Box

I saw this and found it quite fascinating (see the Mint.com report below)…  I remember how people blasted me for taking a job with ExxonMobil a couple years ago (and I love it, btw) because of how successful we are and how much money we have made.  Well, little do you know that XOM is apparently taxed at about 47%!  That’s not mentioning the gas taxes people pay at the pump and any other fees/regulatory expenses I’m sure we pay out – this is just corporate income tax!

The more time I spend learning about the company and the things we do, the more I respect ExxonMobil for being really financially savvy and conservative.  You also have to remember that the reason we make so much money is because we spend a ridiculous amount of money to do what we do – the profit margin is nowhere as good as that of Apple, Google, or Coca-Cola.  We are, however, incredibly successful and I hope it stays that way!  I’ll do my part by keeping servers online at our US Manufacturing sites…  w00t!

Work is a little slow today since I’m transitioning to a new assignment and doing a lot of knowledge transfer (which requires I wait on other people to become available), so I figured I’d do a quick update on some stuff I’ve been looking at recently.

A buddy of mine sent me the following link: http://tv.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge/.  I recommend you check the Antonin Scalia interview, which starts on March 16th and carries on for 5 parts, and contemplate some of what he’s saying.  Whether you agree with him or not, I think it is certainly worth listening to and appreciating as a strong opinion on the Constitution and the role of the judiciary.

I’ve been reading the book Outliers recently, and I’ve really enjoyed it.  I think Gladwell can be a bit verbose with his books, but I appreciate his thought process and ability to break things down.  I haven’t finished yet, but I’m working through the final couple of chapters and would certainly have to recommend the book so far.  I hope I can take some things from it and apply them to my specific circumstances, but again we’ll have to see what my overall opinion is once I’m done.  I’ve already had a couple of spiritual insights that I’ve pulled from the book that I may share as well.

In other news, I’ll be moving out of my office at the Baytown refinery and heading down to the ExxonMobil building at 800 Bell St. in Houston.  I’m excited for a change, and I’m already pretty confident that I will be working with a really solid team.  And I’ll be honest, a shorter commute is certainly an exciting proposition!

I’ll add more in the coming days - I always have a lot to ponder.

Oh, and I’m having dinner with Dad tonight, which is exciting!  Not everyday I have family in town…

I’m getting more and more frustrated with the “stimulus package” stuff that Washington D.C. is going to be passing within the next 4-5 days. I would recommend that people contact (either through email or phone calls) their state senators to let them know you don’t agree with the spending package and you want something more permanent like tax cuts that will actually stimulate the spending within your family.  (The number for the Senate Switchboard is 202-224-3121 – just call and ask for your Senator.)

Here‘s a great article by former Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney.

For more information on the stimulus, I recommend checking out the following websites:

• NoStimulus.com
• The Heritage Foundation
• StimulusWatch.org

As much as I know some of the projects are the stimulus package are probably worthy of funds and could really help create jobs now rather than later (once money frees up within these states and cities), there is a ton of junk in there that looks like political payoffs for democratic supporters.

Instead of doing my Oh-Bah-Muh chant, I think I’m going to just start chanting TAX CUTS!  I pay Nordstrom prices for Walmart quality, and I’m sick and tired of it.