Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, The Prize of Iraqi Oil

TomDispatch - Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, The Prize of Iraqi Oil: "According to Oil and Gas Journal, Western oil companies estimate that they can produce a barrel of Iraqi oil for less than $1.50 and possibly as little as $1…. This is similar to production costs in Saudi Arabia and lower than virtually any other country."

That's $63 dollars a barrel of economic rent, ie pure profit or surplus value above necessary costs. And the price can only go higher due to peak oil at the same time it is discovered Iraq might have the largest remaining oil reserves on the planet.

This is kapitalism, rent-seeking, land monopoly, colonialism, and imperialism in the tiniest and purest little nutshell that you could ever hope to find. Let's hope with this striking and final example the world population wakes up to what this system truly is and how it works.

TomDispatch - Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, The Prize of Iraqi Oil: "According to Oil and Gas Journal, Western oil companies estimate that they can produce a barrel of Iraqi oil for less than $1.50 and possibly as little as $1…. This is similar to production costs in Saudi Arabia and lower than virtually any other country."

That's $63 dollars a barrel of economic rent, ie pure profit or surplus value above necessary costs. And the price can only go higher due to peak oil at the same time it is discovered Iraq might have the largest remaining oil reserves on the planet.

This is kapitalism, rent-seeking, land monopoly, colonialism, and imperialism in the tiniest and purest little nutshell that you could ever hope to find. Let's hope with this striking and final example the world population wakes up to what this system truly is and how it works.

Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, The Prize of Iraqi Oil