The oil industry is holding all of us hostage. Delta Air Lines is a recent example. The Associated Press reports Delta is offering ‘…voluntary severance payouts to roughly 30,000 employees…’ Delta hopes to cut 2,000 jobs. Why?

Let’s define a scenario that makes our math easier to understand. For the sake of argument, let’s say that Delta makes a 25% profit. Let’s define their costs in some simple terms, 25% for general maintenance, 25% for employees, and 25% for fuel for the massive flying machines. When talking about anything other than Jesus himself, 100% is all you get. These 25% apportionments are absurd in their simplicity- but they serve to define the problem.

If the employees want more than their 25% they have to form unions and threaten to strike, to shut down the air line. The management team will sit down with the employees and work out an equitable solution. They negotiate.

There is no negotiating with general maintenance – because of the safety of the public the government has defined minimum maintenance standards – there is no leeway.

So Big Oil has decided that they want more than their apportioned 25%. There is no debate. There is no negotiation. There is no government intervention. Big Oil simply says, “We want more money. We don’t care where you get it. Just give us more.”

This past year Delta has dipped into their 25% to pay the extra costs to the extortionist mobsters. Big Oil continues to up the ante. The 25% profit of Delta is exhausted. The 25% maintenance component is set in concrete and cannot be changed. The only place left to steal from to pay the extortionists is the employee bank.

If 2,000 employees lose their pay checks then 10,000 people directly suffer. Each of those pay checks supplies food and shelter and health care to another four family dependents. These 10,000 people will curtail their spending. They will limit spending in restaurants. They will not buy that new car, or a new wash machine or refrigerator or freezer. They will wear those old clothes a little longer. They will stop having regular health care checkups. They will change their grocery buying habits – less fruit, more pasta. They will drop their membership to the local YMCA and their physical health will deteriorate. Their children will not go to college.

They will no longer be paying income tax.  They cannot pay their property tax.  Local school districts lose revenue.   Local governments lose revenue.  Libraries and Museums suffer.  The Federal Government loses revenue.  Either more government debt is accrued or services are cut.  There is less police and fire protection.  This strikes at the heart of National Security.

Restaurants will lose revenue. Hospitals will lose revenue. The YMCA will lose revenue. Retail outlets will lose revenue. They rippling effect of major job loss is often measured by a multiple of 7.

So where does the money go? It goes to rich fat white men who sit in the executive offices of Big Oil and the United States White House. And what do these folks do with the money? They build big mansions in the Hamptons and hire illegal immigrants to tend their gardens.