Long journey Thom and Louise, and I am so grateful you ended up here. You came to the talk radio table prepared. If you considered yourself blessed, you earned it and then some.
Two of our local companies went from private ownership to being sold to the employees. I hope that keeps happening everywhere.
This is rock bottom for America. We have the template to fix it all. Now we need the President, Congress, and Supreme Court that intends to do it. That too is going to be a long journey.
Once upon a time, we were a nation of small farmers and shop keepers. The industrial revolution begat big business. Although Jefferson and Levine ( you know him as Alexander Hamilton) couldn't have envisioned a country run by corporations, which are state chartered, they have taken over the national economy and now control all branches of government.
Little guys out number the big guys about 99 to 1. Voters have been distracted by wedge issues, by cultural issues, by corruption of the electoral process, by psy ops, by entertainment posing as news, etc.
Resolution is to organize the little guys. Can't do that using a pup tent.
How do we get Thom published as MSM? Make the 99% aware?
Ya, they got the part about British East India Co right, but would not have seen the states involved in what they do today. Picture Lieberman shooting down the public option to appease the insurance companies. Together they left us sicker, sadder, and broke.
Thom has been a commenter on MSM for years. I'd bet he has appeared every time he was asked for CNN or MSNBC. Adam Mockler is getting some airtime; he loves to debate. Meidas has become huge and international. Heather is the top Substack. I pass the word about Thom at every rally and meeting.
The protestors in Scotland cheered me up. TRump lied and was despicable at the presser, he cheated at golf, and it cost us a fortune. It won't look pretty in the news unless you tune in to FOX. The internet pundits were all over it!
Thom's column could be the op ed in newsprint and his program could be the counterpoint on every right wing talk station.
Just to give you an idea, my hometown newspaper, owned by a national chain will not print MY letters even if I were a subscriber on the pretext that I don't live there.
My concern is that this is the earlier part of the slide, not the end.
I don't really accept the concept of evil as some dark and universal force but Trump is making me reconsider. Well, actually he's going to stay in my thoughts as a tangerine-colored buffoon with a nuclear arsenal.
I have really been enjoying your columns. I’m still hoping to find out about the music but I did find you on sub stack wondering if if you’re doing this with any particular band or if it’s AI whatever however you’re doing it if it is AI I gotta say it’s a good use of AI and overall I’m afraid of that whole new potential for violence and lying. I know I have always been too gullible. I hope you’ll put a column about AI soon! Thank you so much for all you’re doing to inform the world by educating us and I feel hopeful when I read your work and hear your voice!! The book. X was nice to read to see more about who you are and how your evolution brought you to this place. Keep bringing in the music.
I am in a deep pocket of red, in Michigan for a wedding this weekend and it was great to share who you are and your music and thoughts with some young people who are very discouraged by their prospects in this time in America. I’m 73 and I don’t like getting older, but I sure am glad I grew up when truth and honesty still mattered!
It's hard to adequately underscore how central this issue is to our survival as a democracy. Control of politics has gone to capitalism ever since Reagan's time, and the universal suffering across America is the product of corporate predation in economics, and of Citizens United's takeover of politics. Fortunately, we have a number of well-placed politicians who could construct remedies, but they need massive support. Every voter with an issue needs to sign up for democratizing the economy in dozens of ways. Entrepreneurship and public finance can lead the way to an equitable and human-friendly civilization.
The pace towards ramrodding a totalitarian gov't into place has evolved coordinatedly side-by-side with the progressive final displacement of capitalism with corporatism. It has been pointed out by savvy experts that the structure and functioning of corporations is patently fascist. Corporations, with the help of Republicans (before eventually MAGA) have enabled corporations to act like little countries, left alone, all by themselves. Housed in unapproachable structures, made invulnerable by their own police forces, their own rules structures, and CEO's internally were given completex dictatorial powers, status secured by massive salaries, on and on. No access permitted, a privledge awarded to almost no other American entity. Now, under the governmental takeover starring Trump, the govt borrows the long-existing corporate template of fascist structure. And by some still baffling blindspot, the America public never managed
to recognize the perils of corporatism. For years, I posted that boycotting would help limit the audacities of corporate excess/heavily top-lawyered access. The public instead regarded corporations as mostly sing-along, friendly entities as presented by themselves, evolved positively from our favorite little grocery shops, local repair shops, corner bakeries, etc, now with the sleight of clever, long- planned offerings of temporary lower prices. The public was not cautious, it was romanced. Will the public awaken to their most potent enemy? They haven't yet.
We all have to move now—and into action against a harmful government that sponsors pedophiles and covers up for them. The needy and children are being abused—by our government. We must protest in the streets until we go down or we oust tyrants, outright crooks, and pedophiles. I made 33 protest signs, and will make many more to share. You will see something different in these signs! Help yourself to this first batch, and share them as far as you can. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/free-protest-signs?r=3m1bs
Thom, yours is the classic tale of "luck and pluck" that comprised the old Horatio Alger stories. I think that there are fewer avenues to success for small business today, as well as for people who just want a decent-paying job, because big businesses suck up all the capital that once made it possible. That goes to shareholders now, which is leading the U.S. economy to depend less on productivity and more on speculation for its growth.
Thank you Thom, not only for this great Substack but for all of the things you've done throughout your life to 'give back'. I have learned so much about our country's history from you and I am trying to fight back against the current administration as much as possible. I continue to need your writings for inspiration and hope and I'm so grateful.
It might be helpful to explain why that term trust is used. It may not have much meaning today because the use of a trust structure in this context has disappeared. Calling Teddy Roosevelt a trustbuster probably has little meaning. It’s better to call him a monopoly buster.
At his time, there was a restriction on the size of a corporation. Therefore, to expand, people like John D Rockefeller incorporated several small corporations and linked them through a trust structure. But then the limitation on the size of the corporation was removed. So large businesses were able to buy up other businesses without restraint and the trust structure fell into disuse.
Once upon a time, the Rockefeller family controlled the entire oil industry.
The trust concept was developed by Samuel Calvin Tate Dodd, Esq., Franklin, Venango County, Pa, who was admitted to the bar in 1859, the same year Colonel E.L. Drake brought in the first gushers in the United States in Oil City, Venango County.
For the next decade, Dodd represented individuals and firms engaged in the infant oil industry, often in opposition to John D. Rockefeller's interests. He recognized Dodd's talents and experience and Rockefeller put him on his payroll as general solicitor for the Standard Oil Co. Dodd remained on salary for the rest of his life, refusing to accept any stock or other equity in the companies he served.
In 1882 Dodd created the Standard Oil Trust that enabled a nine-member board of trustees to coordinate the affairs of forty operating companies. A decade later, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the trust was illegal so Dodd developed an alternative. His ultimate configuration came in 1899: the massive Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, a holding company that performed the same integrated managerial functions as the earlier trust. Dodd did not live to see the Sherman Antitrust Act used to dismember his final corporate creation.
Long later, I had cases in Venango....by that time, Boron oil was Standard Oil of Ohio. Some of the Phillips family, Phillips 66, were my neighbors. They also had homes in Tulsa, Florida... the subsurface in my county was mostly undelerlain by the Middle Kittaning coal range, that often held natural gas and some oil....
More:
Pennzoil: Founded in Oil City, Pennsylvania in 1913, Pennzoil moved its headquarters to Houston in the 1970s. After a significant lawsuit against Texaco, Pennzoil expanded, including the acquisition of Jiffy Lube. In 1998, Pennzoil's motor oil business merged with Quaker State, forming Pennzoil-Quaker State Company. This company was later purchased by Shell Oil Company in 2002. Pennzoil's exploration and production divisions became PennzEnergy, which was acquired by Devon Energy Corporation in 1999. Currently, Pennzoil is a motor oil brand owned by Shell plc.
Quaker State: Founded in Oil City, Pennsylvania, Quaker State relocated its corporate headquarters to Dallas, Texas, in 1995. As mentioned, it later merged with Pennzoil in 1998 and is now also a motor oil brand owned by Shell USA, the US-based division of Shell plc.
Gulf Oil: This company has experienced multiple relocations and ownership changes. Originally based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, controlled by the Mellon family, Gulf's headquarters were closed after the Chevron acquisition in 1984. Chevron acquired the naming rights to the Gulf Oil brand in the US in 1985. Cumberland Farms later acquired these rights in 2010, eventually selling the company to ArcLight Capital Partners in 2015.
Most recently, RaceTrac's subsidiary, Metroplex Energy, acquired Gulf Oil LLC in December 2023. Gulf's headquarters has been in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Wolf's Head Oil Company was a significant refiner in the early history of Venango County. Founded in Oil City, Pennsylvania, in 1879, Wolf's Head was one of the key players alongside Quaker State and Pennzoil in the region's refining operations, with their combined output accounting for over two-thirds of all motor oil sold in the U.S. at one point. While Amalie Oil Company now owns the rights to the Wolf's Head brand name, the company itself originated in the heart of Pennsylvania's oil boom.
Still in business in Venango County: Airdale Oil & Gas LLC, Alliance Petroleum Corp, Allshouse Terrence L JR, Bartley Oil & Gas Co LLC, Bittinger Drilling L A Bittinger Dba, BLX Inc., Catalyst Energy Inc., Cobra Resources LLC, Dannic Energy Corp., Elder Oil & Gas Co., Farrington & Hepler Gas & Oil Inc., JMG Energy LLC, Ows Energy LLC, Pin Oak Energy Partners LLC, R Oil & Gas Ent Inc., Sar Gas Inc., Venango Energy Partners Inc., and Vista Opr Inc.
Once more, America, the Best Country That Money Can Buy. Though with its crumbling infrastructure, its denial of climate-driven risk, its rejection of the sciences, and a semi-literater population verging on civil war, I'm not sure that's really the case. Maybe, instead, we could haVe a fire sale and take what's left to Goodwill.
At this point, most of us in one way or another are working on Massa's farm, happily singing in the fields. The mansion sure does light up pretty at night... Where's Nat Turner when we need him?
O, Captain my Captain great stories on your great opening of business. Nice, to know. If only it was that easy for everybody back then. I, am quite impressed though, Thom. I just wish it worked that way for everyone. I, understand it though. There are so many things I learn from you, Thom. I’m always find it to be so, amazing. Learning is. Glad I know you, for all that.
An amazing bullseye - hitting the heart of today's issues across all industries.
Would love to have an in person dialogue about this - as I have had 10 previous startups across the world in 8 countries employing over 20,00 people, and am about to launch my 11th and for sure last one - to directly address the concepts you highlight - nothing is online yet, but it will be call "Insatiable Intellectual Curiosity LLC" - combining 9 or so huge global everyday issues with a global network of investors, companies, publications, organizations, etc - to move the global needle in a new direction - to be determined by those to choose to jump on the wagon.
Thom compared the US to Norway. We lose. "The lesson of Norway isn’t that the people there are somehow better. It’s that they’ve built institutions that respect the will of the majority and block the power of the morbidly rich. And when their democratic institutions are under threat, they act.
In America, we must do the same.
— End lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court and put in term limits.
— Ban dark money in politics.
— Rebuild public education, not dismantle it.
— Tax the morbidly rich.
— Expand and protect voting rights"
In 2023, Norway's GDP per capita was estimated to be $87,925. This figure represents the total value of goods and services produced in Norway divided by its population. The data is in current US dollars. Noweigans pay a flat income tax rate of 22% on all taxable income
The most recent estimate for the per capita income of the United States is $74,505. Someone with $74,505 in taxable income (single filer) would be subject to:
*10% on the first $11,600.
*12% on the income between $11,601 and $47,150.
*22% on the remaining income between $47,151 and $74,505.
Norway does not have a national debt in the traditional sense. While they do have government debt, it is massively outweighed by the assets held in their sovereign wealth fund, the Government Pension Fund Global. This fund holds assets equivalent to over three times the nation's GDP, making Norway a net creditor. They do not run a budget deficit, instead, they have a surplus, and their net public position is significantly positive.
The sovereign fund started in 1998, the oil fund pools the state's revenues from oil and gas production into investments abroad, both to avoid overheating the domestic economy and for the benefit of future generations. As of June 2025, it had over $1.9 trillion in assets, and held on average 1.5% of all of the world's listed companies, making it the world's largest single sovereign wealth fund in terms of total assets under management. This translates to over $340,000 per Norwegian citizen.
Here's an AI summary of the main taxes in Norway:
Income Tax: Norway has a dual income tax system where ordinary income (from employment, business, and capital) is taxed at a flat rate, and personal income (from employment and pensions) is subject to additional progressive bracket taxes.
Social Security Contributions: Individuals contribute to the National Insurance Scheme (NI-scheme), which funds healthcare, unemployment insurance, and retirement benefits. The employee's contribution rate is typically 7.9% of gross income, while the employer's contribution varies by region and can be up to 14.1%.
Value Added Tax (VAT): This is a consumption tax applied at each stage of production and distribution of most goods and services. The standard VAT rate in Norway is 25%, with reduced rates applying to specific goods and services like foodstuffs and cultural events.
Wealth Tax: Norway imposes a wealth tax on net wealth above a certain threshold at both the municipal and state levels. The municipal rate is 0.525%, and the state rate is 0.475% for net wealth over NOK 1,760,000 for single taxpayers. An increased rate of 0.575% applies to net wealth above NOK 20,700,000.
Property Tax: Municipal authorities may levy property tax on real estate at rates between 0.1% and 0.7% of the assessed value. Some municipalities do not impose this tax.
In summary, Norwegians contribute to a comprehensive tax system that supports a robust welfare state and high quality of life
I think Thom should run this post every day, over and over again for a year or something, until we get it through our thick skulls that the true enemy is not T-Rump and his deranged supporters, who are mostly a symptom rather than a cause, but it is the diseased state of income inequality that the neglect of our anti-trust laws has allowed. Without the constraints that limit the monopolization of the marketplace by big industries, and also without the recirculation of wealth that in a capitalist society automatically moves wealth upward into the upper class, capitalism naturally favors the winners to gobble up more and more of markets until this process destroys the free market. People say, "Oh, you can't put restraints on corporations. That would be contrary to free market principles." Know this: When our economy devolves into fewer and fewer hands, there is no free market. There is essentially an economic dictatorship. It is the responsibility of the a duly elected government to manage capitalist forces so as to preserve the free market, and to insure that capitalist activity brings prosperity to all. This does not demand big government. When the economic system is run effectively, there are less problems, and less size and cost of government.
To write a post like this is to do it an injustice without explaining the role of capital in capitalism. All I can say is that you are one hell of a salesman. The lack of capital has prevented many good ideas from growing or even surviving. The overabundance of capital has allowed the monopolies of today. The "Invisible Hand" is all about capital, too little. You and your wife are not normal, you're extraordinary. Capitalism is great in a growing population that provides demand for products. In a mature economy, it does what it is doing today, eating itself.
$B corporate lobbyists are hard at their work for their clients, along with mega-perks from well-oiled wheels of Federalist Society,Koch, and Heritage operatives around Congressional SCOTUS appointment & amicus decisions. We are cursed by its Citizens United decision. Also by the "Freedom from" propaganda of policy makers and powerful. Our democracy relies on our "Freedoms To". We must be a nation of people who respond to the "common good". We've got to reestablish the common trust in our fellow citizens in the form of our federalist government.
Amazing and dangerous--the magical power and charismatic personalities, Reagan, Trump, etc. Who are the speechwriters and svengalis who find them and turn them into monsters?
Lois Lowry's "Trader" is the character I think of when I see Trump at work on the average voter. I think her books were called "Messenger" and "Son" (books 3 and 4 of a four-part set).
Thanks for the history lesson with examples. Your clear examples from history help me understand the damage large monopolies, unfettered by strong regulation by nonpartisan FTC, do to harm those of us in the middle and below. Thank you. I look forward to reading more and hearing you speak when you're in my neck of the woods.
Long journey Thom and Louise, and I am so grateful you ended up here. You came to the talk radio table prepared. If you considered yourself blessed, you earned it and then some.
Two of our local companies went from private ownership to being sold to the employees. I hope that keeps happening everywhere.
This is rock bottom for America. We have the template to fix it all. Now we need the President, Congress, and Supreme Court that intends to do it. That too is going to be a long journey.
Once upon a time, we were a nation of small farmers and shop keepers. The industrial revolution begat big business. Although Jefferson and Levine ( you know him as Alexander Hamilton) couldn't have envisioned a country run by corporations, which are state chartered, they have taken over the national economy and now control all branches of government.
Little guys out number the big guys about 99 to 1. Voters have been distracted by wedge issues, by cultural issues, by corruption of the electoral process, by psy ops, by entertainment posing as news, etc.
Resolution is to organize the little guys. Can't do that using a pup tent.
How do we get Thom published as MSM? Make the 99% aware?
Ya, they got the part about British East India Co right, but would not have seen the states involved in what they do today. Picture Lieberman shooting down the public option to appease the insurance companies. Together they left us sicker, sadder, and broke.
Thom has been a commenter on MSM for years. I'd bet he has appeared every time he was asked for CNN or MSNBC. Adam Mockler is getting some airtime; he loves to debate. Meidas has become huge and international. Heather is the top Substack. I pass the word about Thom at every rally and meeting.
The protestors in Scotland cheered me up. TRump lied and was despicable at the presser, he cheated at golf, and it cost us a fortune. It won't look pretty in the news unless you tune in to FOX. The internet pundits were all over it!
Thom's column could be the op ed in newsprint and his program could be the counterpoint on every right wing talk station.
Just to give you an idea, my hometown newspaper, owned by a national chain will not print MY letters even if I were a subscriber on the pretext that I don't live there.
Gaza is at rock bottom. We're not even close.
Talking government, morals, and self inflicted wounds. Common term but not usually used concerning innocent victims, Robert.
Our psycho President just made more vile remarks about Gaza and wants the starving people to thank him.
My concern is that this is the earlier part of the slide, not the end.
I don't really accept the concept of evil as some dark and universal force but Trump is making me reconsider. Well, actually he's going to stay in my thoughts as a tangerine-colored buffoon with a nuclear arsenal.
Ditto on the slide and reconsidering evil. Miller and ICE horror stories threw me over the edge. Evil is as evil does.
I have really been enjoying your columns. I’m still hoping to find out about the music but I did find you on sub stack wondering if if you’re doing this with any particular band or if it’s AI whatever however you’re doing it if it is AI I gotta say it’s a good use of AI and overall I’m afraid of that whole new potential for violence and lying. I know I have always been too gullible. I hope you’ll put a column about AI soon! Thank you so much for all you’re doing to inform the world by educating us and I feel hopeful when I read your work and hear your voice!! The book. X was nice to read to see more about who you are and how your evolution brought you to this place. Keep bringing in the music.
I am in a deep pocket of red, in Michigan for a wedding this weekend and it was great to share who you are and your music and thoughts with some young people who are very discouraged by their prospects in this time in America. I’m 73 and I don’t like getting older, but I sure am glad I grew up when truth and honesty still mattered!
It's hard to adequately underscore how central this issue is to our survival as a democracy. Control of politics has gone to capitalism ever since Reagan's time, and the universal suffering across America is the product of corporate predation in economics, and of Citizens United's takeover of politics. Fortunately, we have a number of well-placed politicians who could construct remedies, but they need massive support. Every voter with an issue needs to sign up for democratizing the economy in dozens of ways. Entrepreneurship and public finance can lead the way to an equitable and human-friendly civilization.
The pace towards ramrodding a totalitarian gov't into place has evolved coordinatedly side-by-side with the progressive final displacement of capitalism with corporatism. It has been pointed out by savvy experts that the structure and functioning of corporations is patently fascist. Corporations, with the help of Republicans (before eventually MAGA) have enabled corporations to act like little countries, left alone, all by themselves. Housed in unapproachable structures, made invulnerable by their own police forces, their own rules structures, and CEO's internally were given completex dictatorial powers, status secured by massive salaries, on and on. No access permitted, a privledge awarded to almost no other American entity. Now, under the governmental takeover starring Trump, the govt borrows the long-existing corporate template of fascist structure. And by some still baffling blindspot, the America public never managed
to recognize the perils of corporatism. For years, I posted that boycotting would help limit the audacities of corporate excess/heavily top-lawyered access. The public instead regarded corporations as mostly sing-along, friendly entities as presented by themselves, evolved positively from our favorite little grocery shops, local repair shops, corner bakeries, etc, now with the sleight of clever, long- planned offerings of temporary lower prices. The public was not cautious, it was romanced. Will the public awaken to their most potent enemy? They haven't yet.
We all have to move now—and into action against a harmful government that sponsors pedophiles and covers up for them. The needy and children are being abused—by our government. We must protest in the streets until we go down or we oust tyrants, outright crooks, and pedophiles. I made 33 protest signs, and will make many more to share. You will see something different in these signs! Help yourself to this first batch, and share them as far as you can. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/free-protest-signs?r=3m1bs
Thom, yours is the classic tale of "luck and pluck" that comprised the old Horatio Alger stories. I think that there are fewer avenues to success for small business today, as well as for people who just want a decent-paying job, because big businesses suck up all the capital that once made it possible. That goes to shareholders now, which is leading the U.S. economy to depend less on productivity and more on speculation for its growth.
Thank you Thom, not only for this great Substack but for all of the things you've done throughout your life to 'give back'. I have learned so much about our country's history from you and I am trying to fight back against the current administration as much as possible. I continue to need your writings for inspiration and hope and I'm so grateful.
It might be helpful to explain why that term trust is used. It may not have much meaning today because the use of a trust structure in this context has disappeared. Calling Teddy Roosevelt a trustbuster probably has little meaning. It’s better to call him a monopoly buster.
At his time, there was a restriction on the size of a corporation. Therefore, to expand, people like John D Rockefeller incorporated several small corporations and linked them through a trust structure. But then the limitation on the size of the corporation was removed. So large businesses were able to buy up other businesses without restraint and the trust structure fell into disuse.
Once upon a time, the Rockefeller family controlled the entire oil industry.
The trust concept was developed by Samuel Calvin Tate Dodd, Esq., Franklin, Venango County, Pa, who was admitted to the bar in 1859, the same year Colonel E.L. Drake brought in the first gushers in the United States in Oil City, Venango County.
For the next decade, Dodd represented individuals and firms engaged in the infant oil industry, often in opposition to John D. Rockefeller's interests. He recognized Dodd's talents and experience and Rockefeller put him on his payroll as general solicitor for the Standard Oil Co. Dodd remained on salary for the rest of his life, refusing to accept any stock or other equity in the companies he served.
In 1882 Dodd created the Standard Oil Trust that enabled a nine-member board of trustees to coordinate the affairs of forty operating companies. A decade later, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the trust was illegal so Dodd developed an alternative. His ultimate configuration came in 1899: the massive Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, a holding company that performed the same integrated managerial functions as the earlier trust. Dodd did not live to see the Sherman Antitrust Act used to dismember his final corporate creation.
Long later, I had cases in Venango....by that time, Boron oil was Standard Oil of Ohio. Some of the Phillips family, Phillips 66, were my neighbors. They also had homes in Tulsa, Florida... the subsurface in my county was mostly undelerlain by the Middle Kittaning coal range, that often held natural gas and some oil....
More:
Pennzoil: Founded in Oil City, Pennsylvania in 1913, Pennzoil moved its headquarters to Houston in the 1970s. After a significant lawsuit against Texaco, Pennzoil expanded, including the acquisition of Jiffy Lube. In 1998, Pennzoil's motor oil business merged with Quaker State, forming Pennzoil-Quaker State Company. This company was later purchased by Shell Oil Company in 2002. Pennzoil's exploration and production divisions became PennzEnergy, which was acquired by Devon Energy Corporation in 1999. Currently, Pennzoil is a motor oil brand owned by Shell plc.
Quaker State: Founded in Oil City, Pennsylvania, Quaker State relocated its corporate headquarters to Dallas, Texas, in 1995. As mentioned, it later merged with Pennzoil in 1998 and is now also a motor oil brand owned by Shell USA, the US-based division of Shell plc.
Gulf Oil: This company has experienced multiple relocations and ownership changes. Originally based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, controlled by the Mellon family, Gulf's headquarters were closed after the Chevron acquisition in 1984. Chevron acquired the naming rights to the Gulf Oil brand in the US in 1985. Cumberland Farms later acquired these rights in 2010, eventually selling the company to ArcLight Capital Partners in 2015.
Most recently, RaceTrac's subsidiary, Metroplex Energy, acquired Gulf Oil LLC in December 2023. Gulf's headquarters has been in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Wolf's Head Oil Company was a significant refiner in the early history of Venango County. Founded in Oil City, Pennsylvania, in 1879, Wolf's Head was one of the key players alongside Quaker State and Pennzoil in the region's refining operations, with their combined output accounting for over two-thirds of all motor oil sold in the U.S. at one point. While Amalie Oil Company now owns the rights to the Wolf's Head brand name, the company itself originated in the heart of Pennsylvania's oil boom.
Still in business in Venango County: Airdale Oil & Gas LLC, Alliance Petroleum Corp, Allshouse Terrence L JR, Bartley Oil & Gas Co LLC, Bittinger Drilling L A Bittinger Dba, BLX Inc., Catalyst Energy Inc., Cobra Resources LLC, Dannic Energy Corp., Elder Oil & Gas Co., Farrington & Hepler Gas & Oil Inc., JMG Energy LLC, Ows Energy LLC, Pin Oak Energy Partners LLC, R Oil & Gas Ent Inc., Sar Gas Inc., Venango Energy Partners Inc., and Vista Opr Inc.
Once more, America, the Best Country That Money Can Buy. Though with its crumbling infrastructure, its denial of climate-driven risk, its rejection of the sciences, and a semi-literater population verging on civil war, I'm not sure that's really the case. Maybe, instead, we could haVe a fire sale and take what's left to Goodwill.
Actually we're still the world's richest economy. The problem is income/wealth disparity.
At this point, most of us in one way or another are working on Massa's farm, happily singing in the fields. The mansion sure does light up pretty at night... Where's Nat Turner when we need him?
O, Captain my Captain great stories on your great opening of business. Nice, to know. If only it was that easy for everybody back then. I, am quite impressed though, Thom. I just wish it worked that way for everyone. I, understand it though. There are so many things I learn from you, Thom. I’m always find it to be so, amazing. Learning is. Glad I know you, for all that.
An amazing bullseye - hitting the heart of today's issues across all industries.
Would love to have an in person dialogue about this - as I have had 10 previous startups across the world in 8 countries employing over 20,00 people, and am about to launch my 11th and for sure last one - to directly address the concepts you highlight - nothing is online yet, but it will be call "Insatiable Intellectual Curiosity LLC" - combining 9 or so huge global everyday issues with a global network of investors, companies, publications, organizations, etc - to move the global needle in a new direction - to be determined by those to choose to jump on the wagon.
Entrepreneurship. The main problem is it tales money to make money.https://hartmannreport.com/p/how-norway-became-freer-than-america-39b
Thom compared the US to Norway. We lose. "The lesson of Norway isn’t that the people there are somehow better. It’s that they’ve built institutions that respect the will of the majority and block the power of the morbidly rich. And when their democratic institutions are under threat, they act.
In America, we must do the same.
— End lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court and put in term limits.
— Ban dark money in politics.
— Rebuild public education, not dismantle it.
— Tax the morbidly rich.
— Expand and protect voting rights"
In 2023, Norway's GDP per capita was estimated to be $87,925. This figure represents the total value of goods and services produced in Norway divided by its population. The data is in current US dollars. Noweigans pay a flat income tax rate of 22% on all taxable income
The most recent estimate for the per capita income of the United States is $74,505. Someone with $74,505 in taxable income (single filer) would be subject to:
*10% on the first $11,600.
*12% on the income between $11,601 and $47,150.
*22% on the remaining income between $47,151 and $74,505.
Norway does not have a national debt in the traditional sense. While they do have government debt, it is massively outweighed by the assets held in their sovereign wealth fund, the Government Pension Fund Global. This fund holds assets equivalent to over three times the nation's GDP, making Norway a net creditor. They do not run a budget deficit, instead, they have a surplus, and their net public position is significantly positive.
The sovereign fund started in 1998, the oil fund pools the state's revenues from oil and gas production into investments abroad, both to avoid overheating the domestic economy and for the benefit of future generations. As of June 2025, it had over $1.9 trillion in assets, and held on average 1.5% of all of the world's listed companies, making it the world's largest single sovereign wealth fund in terms of total assets under management. This translates to over $340,000 per Norwegian citizen.
Here's an AI summary of the main taxes in Norway:
Income Tax: Norway has a dual income tax system where ordinary income (from employment, business, and capital) is taxed at a flat rate, and personal income (from employment and pensions) is subject to additional progressive bracket taxes.
Social Security Contributions: Individuals contribute to the National Insurance Scheme (NI-scheme), which funds healthcare, unemployment insurance, and retirement benefits. The employee's contribution rate is typically 7.9% of gross income, while the employer's contribution varies by region and can be up to 14.1%.
Value Added Tax (VAT): This is a consumption tax applied at each stage of production and distribution of most goods and services. The standard VAT rate in Norway is 25%, with reduced rates applying to specific goods and services like foodstuffs and cultural events.
Wealth Tax: Norway imposes a wealth tax on net wealth above a certain threshold at both the municipal and state levels. The municipal rate is 0.525%, and the state rate is 0.475% for net wealth over NOK 1,760,000 for single taxpayers. An increased rate of 0.575% applies to net wealth above NOK 20,700,000.
Property Tax: Municipal authorities may levy property tax on real estate at rates between 0.1% and 0.7% of the assessed value. Some municipalities do not impose this tax.
In summary, Norwegians contribute to a comprehensive tax system that supports a robust welfare state and high quality of life
I think Thom should run this post every day, over and over again for a year or something, until we get it through our thick skulls that the true enemy is not T-Rump and his deranged supporters, who are mostly a symptom rather than a cause, but it is the diseased state of income inequality that the neglect of our anti-trust laws has allowed. Without the constraints that limit the monopolization of the marketplace by big industries, and also without the recirculation of wealth that in a capitalist society automatically moves wealth upward into the upper class, capitalism naturally favors the winners to gobble up more and more of markets until this process destroys the free market. People say, "Oh, you can't put restraints on corporations. That would be contrary to free market principles." Know this: When our economy devolves into fewer and fewer hands, there is no free market. There is essentially an economic dictatorship. It is the responsibility of the a duly elected government to manage capitalist forces so as to preserve the free market, and to insure that capitalist activity brings prosperity to all. This does not demand big government. When the economic system is run effectively, there are less problems, and less size and cost of government.
To write a post like this is to do it an injustice without explaining the role of capital in capitalism. All I can say is that you are one hell of a salesman. The lack of capital has prevented many good ideas from growing or even surviving. The overabundance of capital has allowed the monopolies of today. The "Invisible Hand" is all about capital, too little. You and your wife are not normal, you're extraordinary. Capitalism is great in a growing population that provides demand for products. In a mature economy, it does what it is doing today, eating itself.
$B corporate lobbyists are hard at their work for their clients, along with mega-perks from well-oiled wheels of Federalist Society,Koch, and Heritage operatives around Congressional SCOTUS appointment & amicus decisions. We are cursed by its Citizens United decision. Also by the "Freedom from" propaganda of policy makers and powerful. Our democracy relies on our "Freedoms To". We must be a nation of people who respond to the "common good". We've got to reestablish the common trust in our fellow citizens in the form of our federalist government.
Amazing and dangerous--the magical power and charismatic personalities, Reagan, Trump, etc. Who are the speechwriters and svengalis who find them and turn them into monsters?
Lois Lowry's "Trader" is the character I think of when I see Trump at work on the average voter. I think her books were called "Messenger" and "Son" (books 3 and 4 of a four-part set).
Thanks for the history lesson with examples. Your clear examples from history help me understand the damage large monopolies, unfettered by strong regulation by nonpartisan FTC, do to harm those of us in the middle and below. Thank you. I look forward to reading more and hearing you speak when you're in my neck of the woods.