Interesting idea for fighting high gas prices

[sigelr]

I don't know if this would work but it's an interesting idea- any thoughts out there??

Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 8:24 PM
Subject: how to conquer the gas prices - no joke - urgent read

Subject: $$$ Gas prices

A friend forwarded this to me...with gas prices going up and up...it would be nice to think that we as consumers still have some clout!

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! 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. 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 and Mobil 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 (original sender. wz) am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you 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 generation 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. PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.




Let's do it.

Bill Chambers

 

[Natasha]

HI Bill:
A post like this is questionable on scuba board.
But, since it's a hot topic I'll let it stand if it doesn't take too much of a political turn or a world wide middle east bashing angle.
Also will you edit out Kerry's address and phone number?

Thanks.

P.S. Should I run out and buy gas from Amaco or Shell..and buy stock in them too?

 

[sigelr]

I understand your concerns and agree but that's why I put it on the non-diving related forum. I also agree that this shouldn't become a political discussion - just thought it would be an interesting idea to get out there and, as an appreciative member of the scubaboard community, I thought others might find it interesting. In any case, do what you think is best.

 

[Scuba Duke]

I agree with sigelr, unfortunatley, in my little town neither Exxon or Mobil has a station here.

 

[bwerb]

I don't know if this would work but it's an interesting idea- any thoughts out there??

This whole thing is an urban myth which has been around since at least 1999 Urban Myth

 

[glbirch]

There are a many more realistic ways of reducing gas usage. Simple things like having the proper air pressure in your tires, having your vehicle serviced regularly and driving a little slower can help your mileage. Walking, biking, carpooling...

Prices are dictated by supply and demand. For the price to go down, demand needs to be reduced.

I'm always amazed at how people will balk around here at .89/litre for gas, but happily pay 1.20/litre for bottled water.

 

[milkathecow]

well in switzerland and france we reach approx 1.1 or 1.2USD per liter... which is far more expensive than your prices... but well the idea is the same. glbirch has good points on the air pressure, turning the AirCon off as much as possible, driving windows closed, trying to avoid having huge things on the roof of the car making it less aerodynamic.

I love the idea of biking or walking too specially with the 3 tanks for the students and the whole kits on my back it's top class and worth a digiVideo to win a few bucks on those joke tv shows ... even though there are circumstances when you can't use those ideas, most of us could do so to go to the grocery store to get a few little things, or get around short distances instead of taking the care.

Moreover a good thing is when you buy a car to find an "eco-friendly" model with a low Carbone Monoxide emission and which doesn't suck a huge amount of fuel . Something like 6-9l per 100km is a good average for a car which can still hit the 140km/h (which is just over limit here in some european countries)... therefore as we're not supposed to go faster... why spend more on fuel, cars which are more powerful without reason...

The fuel issue is still questionnable, as it's true that exxon and Mobil are like BP and ESSO in europe, i don't quite know if they are the same companies, but we have the exact same email in french with our currency stated. I'm sure that if we boycot some of those petroleum companies, we can manage to reduce some of the costs obviously as they will find less demand then have to reduce the costs.

 

[glbirch]

Cynical dastard that I am, I can't help but think that "Bill Chambers" actually works for Esso or one of the other companies. Great zero-cost trick for increasing market share, eh?

 

[Bob3]

This whole thing is an urban myth which has been around since at least 1999

Nope, it's REALLY a plan by Shell Oil stockholders.
Looks like ya didn't bother to read the writeup, condensed version: it is suggested that no gas be bought from Exxon/Mobile.

I doubt if there are enough people out there that would go out of their way to make the effort.

 

[archman]

Ditto on the urban legend thing... this exact method creeps up on the internet every year or two. I get more of these emails than the "don't buy gas on Tuesday" spam, actually.

U.S. oil companies report around a 5 cent profit for gasoline sales at the pump. Not much bilking going on there, I'm afraid.

A lack of public support to upgrade and build new domestic refineries to keep up with our own demand is a major factor. Oil doesn't come into the U.S. ready to be poured into our cars, but must undergo a lengthy and expensive purification process. The "not in my backyard" syndrome is much more the culprit than exxon or mobil.

Unprecedented oil demand from China is the secondary major factor. Americans have long received the lion's share of oil from the world, but now we have to share. I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner; this is the price for becoming an industrialized nation. Expect China to ramp up its domestic oil needs a lot more in the near future.

Third and final dominant factor, public hysteria. Many economists believe that more than 25% of the rise in domestic gasoline prices is due to public uncertainty on the market... the more irrational we become the more you can expect the price to go up. So tell all your friends to calm down, there's plenty of oil around. :dazzler1: