I Support Big Oil

So apparently one of the companies whose shares are included in one of my 401(k)’s mutual funds makes drill bits. For oil rigs.

Just wanted to let everyone know that at least a fraction of my future is dependent on screwing the rest of you.


Comments

4 responses to “I Support Big Oil”

  1. <THWACK/>

    That’s for the pun, not for the investment.

  2. Hah! I didn’t even realize that one. Good eye!

  3. We’re both in the same boat (on the same oil rig?). I’ve known for a while that one of my stocks is a petroleum company, but I only yesterday found out how I acquired it (I didn’t remember this event) and where they’re located. Turns out it used to be the fairly small natural resources division of Union Pacific Railroad, spun off in the ’90s, which was then absorbed by a large oil company in 2000 through a stock-trade. So by accident, from buying a railroad I wound up owning shares in Big Oil. Not just Big Oil–but, as I found out yesterday, Texas Big Oil. I feel dirty. (At least it’s not Halliburton.)

    (I wonder how often this sort of thing happens–you invest in one industry, and you wind up with an investment in not just a different company in that industry, but in a completely different industry altogether.)

    But the oil stock has done extremely well over the past five years (as has the railroad since it spun off the unprofitable-for-them division), so perhaps by devoting some of the resources this has afforded me (through dividend and growth) towards environmental and liberal causes, it all balances out in the end?

    Because really, if it’s not my money in the oil stock, it’s someone else’s (potentially someone far more conservative and environmentally-unfriendly)–it doesn’t really help them that I’m an investor, given that I’m small enough that I have no influence in the company. So I don’t think you or I need to feel too guilty about our investments.

  4. If I’m ridiculous, then you’re a nut. Splain yourself.

    And yes, dee-dee is me. I am dee-dee.

    Plus, you have no soul. Big oil supporter-work for the man man!

Nurd Up!