Dancing around the economy chat

I've been considering posting about the economy and its active downwards sliding. However, I'm not overly sure what to say about it without getting incredibly frustrated or depressed.

Here's my premise. The world's economy isn't doing well very. That's an understatement of the decade. So when large corporations are laying off workers left, right and centre, I would imagine that these same companies would attempt to rein in spending.
There is a delicate balance between maintaining current employee levels and saving for a rainy day. Some organizations are better suited to surviving a recession, such as those businesses who provide a necessary service. Other organizations are more suited towards those times when finances are plenty.

A few weeks ago, I was reading a newsite that was reporting about an oil company's record quarterly profits. In the midst of the United States government bailing out banks all over the map, this company made a record 14.9 Billion dollar profit during its previous quarter.

Let me repeat that. FOURTEEN. Nine BILLION DOLLARS.

This amount of money is more than most mid-sized corporations can only dream of.
Being a student, the idea of 14.9 billion dollars is more money than I will ever earn. Even to have more than a couple of hundred dollars that isn't heading directly for a credit card or loan repayment, is flooring.

I'd like to thank the oil company for keeping their gasoline prices so high, so that they could report to their shareholders/investors that they reported record quarterly profits. How's that for investor relations?
As a consumer of gasoline related products, knowing that a company made record profits would drive me towards a different gas station. I'd rather support an independent gas station than one that owns so many others.