I'm still marveling at the fact that the president of the US is trying to create a cartel to support oil prices, in effect taxing U.S. consumers to support the oil industry 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
If you look at it more closely, it's even worse than it appears on casual observation. Why? Because oil&gas extraction is extremely capital-intensive, so almost none of the benefits flow to workers. 2/
A little table: fixed assets in 2018 from BEA apps.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.…,
employment from BLS bls.gov/webapps/legacy…,
implied capital per worker in thousands of dollars. 3/
employment from BLS bls.gov/webapps/legacy…,
implied capital per worker in thousands of dollars. 3/
If I'm reading this right, oil&gas 40X (!) as capital-intensive as overall private sector. Also included hospitals, bc Rs trying to block additional funding despite Covid 4/ thehill.com/homenews/senat…
Aside from desperate need for medical care, hospitals are a huge source of employment, while oil & gas isn't. So Rs willing to subsidize capital but not help workers. Are you surprised? 5/
Another way to think about this. US consumers around 7.5 b barrels of oil per year. So a (say) $20 price rise would be a tax on Americans of $150 billion a year. How many workers might this benefit? ~ 150 K. Hospitals employ 5 million; s&l govt 16 million 6/
