You're not transferring wealth if you're buying something with it

There's a weird meme around (similar to the one I've written about before, that renting is throwing money away). This meme is: the U.S. is transferring wealth to oil-producing countries. That is, we're giving those countries lots of money. (One example can be found here; to be sure though, I was not able to find sources proving that President Obama had actually said this. I do remember Senator McCain saying it during the 2008 campaign. But, again, don't have sources.)

Indeed, we are giving those countries lots of money. But we're quite obviously not transferring that money, because we're getting something in return. Oil, that is. Since we seem to value oil, this isn't really a transfer of wealth, but more of an exchange thereof.

I guess the lesson here is that those who rent an apartment or a house and pay to heat it are real chumps. Not only are they throwing away money on rent, on top of that they're also transferring money they pay on their utility bills.