Originally Posted by TanyaL

I wonder how many people think that the oil companies are privately owned companies? They are traded on the stock market, are part of mutual funds, investors in them are in the hundreds of thousands. Those of you who have IRA's for your retirement savings probably own shares in oil companies. You are the owners - not some unidentified rich person. The amount of shares you own determine the amount you earn. Each share owner has the opportunity to attend every meeting and to vote their shares. You can vote with only one share, 10 shares, 100 shares, whatever. You own the company. If you don't like the way the company is being run, you can make your viewpoint heard. You can run for an office in the company. This is the difference in a publicly held company and a private company. All the big companies are publicly held companies.