I am sure that I am not alone in the disgust and anger every time I pull up to the gas pumps. Every week I have seen price increases of no less than .14 a gal.

So I got this email today and while I did forward it on I figured I would post it on the forum where it will be seen by more people. Will this idea work? Who knows. But doing something to try and bring the prices down is better than doing nothing but complain. And I don't know about the rest of you, but I am tired of hearing about all of the profits these big gas companies are making quarterly. Billons!!!!

So let the boycott begin

Boycott $4.00 Dollars a Gallon

THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' GAS FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET GAS BACK DOWN TO $1.30 PER GALLON. (doubt we will ever see those prices again but sure would love to see it down closer to even $3.00 per gallon)

This was sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. If you are = tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this summer, take time to read this please.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.
This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy gas on a certain day' campaign that was going around last April or May! It's worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!

I hear we are going to hit close to $ 6.00 a gallon by this summer and it might go higher (I heard closer to $8.00 by the end of the summer)!! Want gasoline prices to come down?

We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to 'hurt' ourselves by refusing to buy gas .

It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them
BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can Really work. Please read on and join with us!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $2.50 - $2.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace. not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action.

The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit
someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas.

But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. Shell should also be included in this boycott

If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If
they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit

But to have an impact, we = need to reach literally millions of Exxon, Mobile and Shell gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now , don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers .
If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION
PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all!

(If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am . so trust me on this one.

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL/SHELL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

thank you for contributing to the dumbing down of society.

Posting this is like a reverse Flynn Effect.

quote:

Originally posted by El-Ka-Bong:
thank you for contributing to the dumbing down of society.

Posting this is like a reverse Flynn Effect.

Do you have a better idea or are you ok with the ever rising cost of gas?

I have always thought the issue of not buying gas for one day would be worthless and still do. But while the odds are really long I think, IMHO the premise of boycotting the bigger gas stations might have some merit.

Yes, such a boycott will probably hurt the station owners for these companies, but to be honest there are stations here that are closing down because the prices have risen so much and people putting the gas on their charge cards is wiping out what little margin of profit these stations are making because of these outrageous increases.

Its almost comical watching these big stations getting virtually no business, while the little independent stations charging up to .10 less a gallon have long lines of people waiting to fill up their tanks.

quote:

Originally posted by squirrelpee:

Do you have a better idea or are you ok with the ever rising cost of gas?

I guess you are right, forwarding emails is the way to go. Good thing we have you and my 68 year old mother fighting the good fight.

There is one way to lower gas prices, and as someone who's written on this extensively and studied it even more, that one way is the only way that we as individuals can control this - drive less. I know most people's initial reactions, as mine was, would be along the lines of, "there's no way I can maintain my routine without my car, nor can I realistically drive less." I live in an area of the country that's as car-dependent as any in the world, so the process I used to cut my driving wasn't simple, but it got done.

While this idea is better than the one-day boycott idea, which I agree is silly, it still won't be enough to effectuate any change. You're dealing with a de facto cartel that is selling goods they view as an integral need. They've been manipulating their own markets for decades. In short, they're good at what they do, and would combat this strategy quite easily.

How? Easy. If everyone picked two companies to boycott, say Shell and Exxon/Mobil, and did so effectively, the companies that would see the benefit of the same level of macro consumption being shifted to their pumps would do the same thing the world market is on a macro level right now - raise their prices. After all, if everyone started going to, say, Chevron, then they would see a huge rise in demand with the same supply. That = raised prices. If/when this happened, the market would correct itself as people would run back to Shell or E/M, and the market would internally come back into balance, with no benefit derived by the consumer.

There's only one answer - drive less. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's up to every individual to figure it out. Carpool. Take the bike. Go for a walk. Plan all the errands/driving you need to do for that day ahead of time and get it all done in one swoop - you'll be amazed at what you save. Lowering demand on a select few companies won't lower demand overall - it'll only shift it. However, if we as consumers lower overall demand by even 10-15%, you'll see a beneficial reaction.

quote:

Originally posted by squirrelpee:
Do you have a better idea or are you ok with the ever rising cost of gas?

Do you have an original thought or do you just regurgitate chain emails?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

2 years old. False then, false now.

quote:

Originally posted by MN Cheese:

quote:

Originally posted by squirrelpee:
Do you have a better idea or are you ok with the ever rising cost of gas?

Do you have an original thought or do you just regurgitate chain emails?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

2 years old. False then, false now.

thanks a lot tough guy....I thought she was really on to something.

Ironically, another solution to high gas prices came to the inbox this morning.

quote:

Originally chain mailed by EKB's mom:
Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

Why does that e-mail make me want to send all of my gas money to Nigeria?

quote:

Originally posted by Blair Kiel:
Why does that e-mail make me want to send all of my gas money to Nigeria?

Wait a minute, don't you usually receive checks from Nigeria from the sons of deposed heads of state?

quote:

Originally posted by El-Ka-Bong:

quote:

Originally posted by squirrelpee:

Do you have a better idea or are you ok with the ever rising cost of gas?

I guess you are right, forwarding emails is the way to go. Good thing we have you and my 68 year old mother fighting the good fight.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one with a mother regurgitating this crap.

quote:

Originally posted by iowacheese:

quote:

Originally posted by MN Cheese:

quote:

Originally posted by squirrelpee:
Do you have a better idea or are you ok with the ever rising cost of gas?

Do you have an original thought or do you just regurgitate chain emails?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

2 years old. False then, false now.

thanks a lot tough guy....I thought she was really on to something.

Oh thank goodness MN was able to find that this email is false. Funny though two years ago I wasn't paying close to $4.00 a gal for gas. I think I was paying maybe $2.50 a gal.

For the record, this is the first time I have ever seen this idea come through the email, unlike the ever reoccuring don't buy gas on a certain day one.

As for me having an original thought. Well I have them as often as you do.

Iowa I thought the idea had some small amount of merit, chances of it actually doing anything to ease the ever rising gas prices were slim at best(which I did state) but figured that others might be not only intrigued by the concept but also tired of paying outrageous gas prices with no end in sight. I guess there are some here who are either not bothered by paying so much for gas or would rather attack the message for trying to pass along something. Long shot that it was. Oh well.

That email has been going around the internet for years.

quote:

Originally posted by squirrelpee:

quote:

Originally posted by iowacheese:

quote:

Originally posted by MN Cheese:

quote:

Originally posted by squirrelpee:
Do you have a better idea or are you ok with the ever rising cost of gas?

Do you have an original thought or do you just regurgitate chain emails?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

2 years old. False then, false now.

thanks a lot tough guy....I thought she was really on to something.

Oh thank goodness MN was able to find that this email is false. Funny though two years ago I wasn't paying close to $4.00 a gal for gas. I think I was paying maybe $2.50 a gal.

For the record, this is the first time I have ever seen this idea come through the email, unlike the ever reoccuring don't buy gas on a certain day one.

As for me having an original thought. Well I have them as often as you do.

Iowa I thought the idea had some small amount of merit, chances of it actually doing anything to ease the ever rising gas prices were slim at best(which I did state) but figured that others might be not only intrigued by the concept but also tired of paying outrageous gas prices with no end in sight. I guess there are some here who are either not bothered by paying so much for gas or would rather attack the message for trying to pass along something. Long shot that it was. Oh well.

I for one appreciate the informatiion SP. Seemed like a good idea to me. MnCheese is just trying to be a bully......again

quote:

Originally posted by squirrelpee:

As for me having an original thought. Well I have them as often as you do.

Of course that's when you're not coping and pasting or rewriting something-someone elses comments from one board to another,right? You should stick with that thou because when you do attempt an original thought it's usually quite comical to most. Especially on the subject of football.

quote:

Oh thank goodness MN was able to find that this email is false. Funny though two years ago I wasn't paying close to $4.00 a gal for gas. I think I was paying maybe $2.50 a gal.

Good God woman, did you even click on the freakin link MN Cheese provided?!?!?!

Collected on the Internet, 2004

GAS WAR!

Join the resistance!!!!

I hear we are going to hit close to $3.00 a gallon by the summer. Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth, offered this good idea: This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Please read it and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $1.97 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50- $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace....not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas!

Yada, Yada, Yada

From the LINK...

quote:

A boycott of a couple of brands of gasoline won't result in lower overall prices. Prices at all the non-boycotted outlets would rise due to the temporarily limited supply and increased demand, making the original prices look cheap by comparison. The shunned outlets could then make a killing by offering gasoline at its "normal" (i.e., pre-boycott) price or by selling off their output to the non-boycotted companies, who will need the extra supply to meet demand. The only person who really gets hurt in this proposed scheme is the service station operator, who has almost no control over the price of gasoline.

The only practical way of reducing gasoline prices is through the straightforward means of buying less gasoline, not through a simple and painless scheme of just shifting where we buy it. The inconvenience of driving less is a hardship too many people apparently aren't willing to endure, however.

Got my question answered.

quote:

Originally posted by Hungry5:
Search for low gas prices by zip code

Gas Temprature Map, tells you how much gas is selling for nation wide.

If we all drive to the location that has the cheapest gas, then all the other places would have to lower their prices as well.

"And the Nobel Prize for brilliance goes to........... EKB!"

.....and if you drive around town trying to find the lowest price which saves you 80 cents on a tank, you burned up that 80 cents driving around.

quote:

Originally posted by El-Ka-Bong:

quote:

Originally posted by Hungry5:
Search for low gas prices by zip code

Gas Temprature Map, tells you how much gas is selling for nation wide.

What about Alaska and Hawaii?

quote:

Originally posted by squirrelpee:
...I thought the idea had some small amount of merit...

Which part?

What merit did it have?