Nixon didn't nationalize the oil industry,
Uh, yeah. Probably because he wasn't a big fan of socio-fascism.
which is why the big ones make obscene profits today.
Ah! Here we go! "Obscene profits". Definitely not a Nixon man. So, let me guess, Putin lover? No? Then how about Stalin/Lenin/Hitler/Mao all rolled up into one smelly shitball?
Price controls all within the context of capitalist profit motives, not state ownership.
Duh. The capitalist system is based on profit. Obscene or otherwise. Why do you care?
In the Soviet Union, the state controlled the means of production, and it worked for them for 75 years...the USSR, unlike the US, didn't go through dozens and dozens of recessions since 1918.
Yes, the state controlled the means of production. But the communist manifesto wanted the workers to seize control. You know what's inscribed on Karl Marx's tombstone? "Workers of the world, unite!". And that system did NOT work! It has NEVER worked. I'll take "dozens and dozens of recessions" over one really LOOOONG depression any day. You think I'm wrong, find a Russian immigrant and ask them about their work experience in the old USSR. Soviet workers had a saying, "THEY PRETEND TO PAY US, AND WE PRETEND TO WORK."
The capitalist economy has failed more times than can be counted and each and every time, it has been saved by government action. Since 1918, the US has experienced ~20 recessions and 1 Depression. That sure as shit doesn't seem good not even by comparison to the USSR.
It has never failed, or else we would have another system in place. And exactly how has "government action" ever saved it other than implementing sounder economic policies?
Has the US ever experienced a period of 75 consecutive years of economic growth with no depressions or recessions? LOL. No.
Has the US ever experienced a period of 75 consecutive years of economic stagnation, lack of innovation, and substandard living and working conditions? And it's funny you mention depressions, because what we call the great depression here in the USA, was actually a WORLDWIDE depression, as is the recession we're in today. Your precious Russians came out of the great depression into WW2, out of WW2 back into a depression from which they eked out a severe recession, and that's where they stayed until the USSR croaked. Now they're just stuck in the worldwide recession with the rest of us. But they're comfortable there. It's familiar.
No. The problem remains that keeping control of the industry in private hands leads to price gouging in order to make profit.
Is it just the oil and gas industry that's got your panties twisted up? And at what point is it price gouging? Because it's a slippery slope. Lots of people out there making profits, and they're probably obscene profits, by your standards.