I went to the coast and got a jar full of oil. Do I have to pay BP for it?

Actually, I believe all of the earths resources belong to all the inhabitants of the planet. In Alaska, ironically the most socialistic state in the country, big $2,000 checks are given to every citizen just for being a resident. The money comes from the oil companies in the state as part of payment for drilling there. Since all oil and other resources are under people's feet everywhere why aren't people directly compensated directly from those who are taking it from the ground.

Look at the Middle East. A handful of thugs take all of the oil under millions of people who live in their countries. While some have hundreds of billions of dollars, the rest live in almost total poverty. The fair thing to do is distribute the wealth of the nation to all the people equally.

Corporations did not create gold, diamonds, oil, gas or other natural substances in our ground. They don't own it. It is a resource that should belong to the people living over it, or near it. Corporations have long preyed on indigenous people using them as slave labor to make themselves massively wealthy. Natural resources shouldn't be owned only by the powerful and strong who were able to overpower others to take it from them. But corporate imperialism has done that for hundreds of years.

It's about time corporations like BP stop making obscene profits and share the money from resources with people. Yes, they can have a token amount for their efforts in getting the oil to the market, but not continually getting tens of billions in profits every year while people starve, go broke and suffer. BP makes 400 billion gross revenue. They 'claim' a 40 billion dollar profit. Of course, most corporate profit sheets are pure illusion. They pay their executives enormous amounts of money they don't deserve. And BP spends millions to buy lobbyists and politicians to allow their company to avoid regulations and to maximize their profits by also maximizing the risk to people's lives and environments.

It's time to force our government to represent us for a change. They can start by forcing corporations like BP, and every other corporation that extracts natural resources from the ground, to share their wealth with the people who are true owners of the land.

Makes sense. Oil belongs to all of us, indeed! Maybe we can all join the class action lawsuit against them for ruining our beaches and on behalf of wildlife.

K&R

I'd LOVE to know why!!

On the other hand, it's also possible somebody unrec'd just to irritate you! ;)

The oil companies pay my tribe for anything "from the grass down". We only get that because of a slightly deranged former governor of Oklahoma. That is as it should be. It's our land. If you take anything from it then we're entitled to remuneration or a say in how it's used.

European civilization refined the concept to its extreme. We accept ownership of land and resources as an agreed upon convention, there is no physical process of owning. We can be near things, and keep other people away from them, but ownership is an arbitrary creation like money.

related income drops off and the state becomes poorer than dirt again. They have this in a fund, and pay some of the interest to the residents so they won't vote to use the money in the fund for things like schools, infrastructure, social services, etc. All those are pretty darn well funded right now, but when oil drops off, the State will have little money coming in.

To keep those citizens from voting to use that money, the pfd is sort of like a bribe. Get money now, for each person, and let the rest stay in the bank for now.
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You ask "Since all oil and other resources are under people's feet everywhere why aren't people directly compensated directly from those who are taking it from the ground." My extended family grew up in oil country in Montana, we always looked forward to seeing the "grasshopper" pumps because we knew we knew we were getting closer to the relative's house. They had some stock (shell I think) which paid some dividends, but the oil rights weren't theirs. They owned the land, but not what was under it. Rather like water rights in places.

I agree that those living over resources should get compensated from whomever is using them. I don't know how to do that, but also VERY much agree that the mega-rich-giants that make brazillions off these resources need to be held accountable. Not just "oh, we'll clean it up" since that is impossible. But to make sure that harm is minimized. Or even the potential for harm is minimized.

The song is about various oil spills (most of them from tankers, one from a well in the Gulf of Mexico). The chorus advises:

BP is just the lessee. The lessor is the federal government. I agree that all oil leases and all other natural resources that are harvested should belong to the society they come from. Owning a layer of dirt shouldn't entitle someone to something 13,000' below it just as they aren't entitled to the air 13,000' above it.