No response needed

I just want the world to know. Dear Senator,

My wife and I have a small store where we have been selling shrimp from for

11 years. Our store is actually a boat in St. Andrews Marina. Everyday fishermen hired by BP are going out in search of oil. I see 30 to 50 boats leave every morning. Many (it should be most*) of these are fishermen that have lost there means of making a living. BP has hired them and is paying them well. At this time we have no oil in Panama City.

MY FIRST POINT, don't do anything that will affect the financial viability of BP. You should encourage purchase of BP fuel, you need to keep BP healthy so the stock price can rise, this makes BP stronger so it can continue to pay cleanup crews and claims.

I am on this marina everyday and I know most of the fishermen, the fisherman are thrilled with the pay from BP.

A small boat of 20ft gets $1000 dollars day, This is $250,000 a year for a 5 day work week. Fuel and supplies are paid by BP. The larger the boat the higher the pay, $3000 a day is the highest I have heard. That's $750,000 a year, and the expenses are paid. Deckhands are getting $200 dollars a day, that is $50,000 a year. Most of these deckhands never saw $20,000 a year in there life.

The pay is so high that the shrimpers are stopping shrimping and going to work for BP, on oil patrol. The same is happening in Apalachicola Fl, (about

100 miles SE of me) the oyster capitol of this area. Our local oyster bar had to find a new source for oysters, his oystermen went to work for BP.

A quote from our local newspaper,

"APALACHICOLA - With compensation checks easily available, oystering has slowed to a crawl on Apalachicola Bay. ...Seafood houses across the county say they are able to obtain barely 10 percent of their normal allotment of oysters. There are plenty of oysters. ( just know one to harvest them)

Same with Apalachicola shrimpers, There is no oil and plenty of shrimp.

Panama City Beach is a tourist area, when the oil gets here the thousands of hotel rooms will not have tourists, the housekeepers won't have work, the restaurants won't have customers and waitresses tips will dwindle. All business will be affected. Real estate is already greatly affected, people don't want to buy with oil coming and some know prices will be lower in 3 or

4 months.

Now back to my situation, for the last 7 years we have been open 10 hrs a day, 7 days a week, 363 days a year.

We will continue working until we can't. The plan was 7 to 10 more years, now I don't know if it will be one more month or one more year. At this point I am confident BP will pay for any losses that I may have in the future, but they need to continue to be financially strong.

I'm sure you're aware that the BP stock price is down 44% since the spill started. This means they have lost 73 billion in market capitalization. It is time to help the company recover rather than do anything that could affect the price further.

Many retirees rely on BP dividends for retirement income. If you push the idea to create an escrow fund and cause the dividend to be unpaid, this will lower the stock price, further weakening the company. Without those dividends the retirees will find other stocks to get there income**.

This could cause BP to fail.

If you allow BP to stay strong, the 15 to 20 billion dollars of profit they generate every year will be more

than enough to pay cleanup and claims.

Please stay focused on the unintended consequences of creating an escrow fund.

Sincerely,

Mike Knowlton

**Recreational fisherman are jumping on this gravy train, it should have been commercial

fishermen first. Retirees are supplementing their retirement with their recreational fishing boat.

** ( starting with 44% less money)
Reply to
amdx
Loading thread data ...

Thanks, Tony. Write early, write often.

Reply to
News

Who is Tony?

If you mean that, I have a list of rants I can get going on.

BP and the Environmentalists and NIMBYs

The Boarder

Government social programs

On our constitution and capitalism

English should be the official language of the United States.

The top 5% of wage earners pay 60% of all federal taxes,

50% of wages earners pay no federal taxes.

Political correctness

Mike

Reply to
amdx

A clear misunderstanding of the dynamics of BP's world view and economics. BP's 'performance' is based on screwing the next guy, always has always will be.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA and what reality is this world you live in?

I've extended family and friends in the sea food industry in and around NOLA and the MS gulf coast. I don't know where you're getting your numbers but they are not on the ground, real world. Regardless if there is no oil why is BP paying anyone to collect oil.

The shrimpers in this end of the gulf are going to work for BP because there is no other game in play.

Name of the paper with date and a link would carry some weight.

Fishing out of season I see. Shows how much you really know about the business.

Yes Virginia there is a Santa Clause.

BP's stock price has no impact on the value of BP's assets. The down tern is more a reflection of the markets opinion of the ability of BP's management to manage.

Investing is a risk, when you buy stocks you buy into the potential reward and the inherent risk. Does ENRON and MCI ring a bell?

Very unlikely.

There is a clear indication that they intend to 'avoid' any and all $ responsibility to the best of their ability.

Make up your mind: previously you were very concerned about the plight of retirees now you want preference give to commercial elements. Am I to assume you're anti-family farm and pro-agribusiness. Same logic applies.

An aside: Why haven't we had the advantage of Dick Cheney's knowledge and wisdom in this affair. He was, according to reports once upon a time a well placed upper manager in one of the biggest oil fields service companies in the world. Since he is known to speak with authority (just ask him) why is he so silent with what should be his main skill set?

Reply to
NotMe

"amdx" <

Warren Buffet's secretary pays more taxes by percentage than he does and that's just one example.

Reply to
NotMe

n still equal to 1.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

Most of this is a reaction to the costs of the clean-up and what it would do the dividend, which is a part of the price of the stock. Don't think much more than that is priced into the stock (yet). This may be a toMAto toMAHto type of disagreement, though.

Much more likely that it would declare bankruptcy. Worked for the asbestos companies, among many others, when the liability got to great.

Pretty much their job in this case.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

Hey, if I were a gazillionaire, I could easily set up my portfolio so that I'd pay zero [a] in taxes.

A simple investment in "triple tax free municipal bonds", or a similar purchase, would pay off without a single cent going to taxes.

Of course the yield I'd be getting on those bonds would be just a fraction of what regular, taxable, ones would be giving.

[a] I'm not sure how the AMT works in this regard...
Reply to
danny burstein

Which means what exactly?

Reply to
NotMe

Stat saying noting that a study with an "n" (as in number) equal to one is useless. Think of it as anecdote is the not the singular of data.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

So what! If she pays $15,000 and he pays $9,000,000, do you think she got screwed?

Reply to
amdx

No one claimed it was a study or a statistic or that it was unique. It's a fact and more common than many would suspect.

I know personally a number of people that have gross income in excess of $250K and pay no income tax legitimately. Their employees OTOH do pay taxes and given the numbers presented by Buffet himself they pay more as a % of income than Buffet.

Reply to
NotMe

If you defined this as she paying 20% and his paying 10% she does come out on the short end of the stick.

Reply to
NotMe

No! Buffet paid her a salary (and a lot of other people as well) that she would not have if Buffet had no money.

David

Reply to
David

No more than the other way around. Still an n=1 "study" and illustrative of nothing.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

Silly me, I supposed that you tossed out to actually make some kind of point.

Buffet is a hard man to pin down on these things. He takes out relatively little cash (especially as compared to his peers). He is a multi-billionaire based mostly on his stock ownership in B-H. It is very possible that his secretary makes more than he does in taxable income since so much of his net worth is in the cap gains that won't be taxable until sold. Even then he is on-record as saying he is going to give most of it away.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

And is that true of all business. Yesterday I sold 16 large shrimp for $26.00 did I screw the guy?

I'm here watching every day! They are earning at least 3 x their usual income, some 5 times and more. We have No good lazy bum living with his welfare and food stamp collecting girl friend that didn't earn $5000 last year, receiving $2500 a month because he is claiming he can't fish.

I'm sure that is true to the West of me, so far the oil not here.

Here's a good search phrase, > Apalachicola oysters BP 10% <

This is my local paper, June 10, 2010

formatting link
formatting link
he added, "The problem right now appears to be finding someone to harvest the oysters."

I didn't say I fished, I said "have a small store where we have been selling shrimp from for 11 years." For 7 years we have been open 10 hrs a day, 7 days a week, 363 days a year. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and for hurricanes.

Absolute nonsense! The stock is the biggest asset.

Yes but the government should not cause the stock price to fall.

I sure hope not.

Where did you get that?

The retirees that jumped on the gravy train had no loss from the oil spill. Their retirement income is what ever it is, and hasn't changed because of BP. But they are taking BP jobs from real commercial fishermen.

Yea, that's how replublicans act, once out of office they don't interfere with the reigning administration, as opposed to Carter or Clinton.

Reply to
amdx

And if so, did he pay extra for that?

Reply to
DevilsPGD

No, they were $10.50 LB and I had a bit over 2.5 LB. Bigger shrimp do cost more per LB. Oh, I just reread your question and got your innuendo :-) Mike

Reply to
amdx

This IS usenet, gotta have some fun. :)

Reply to
DevilsPGD

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.