Trying To Get Gas Prices Down!

[Crayzee]

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.

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 $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies justlaughed 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!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $3.10 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 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 = 3000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached 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 UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

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[WWTSblows]

If the theory here is that by not buying from mobil/exxon, they will have to lower their price to get people to buy, this will unfortunately not work.

Mobil/exxon drops price, others stay same, we all buy from others still. The others will get swamped, be forced to raise prices to keep up with demand. We head back to mobil who are probably back to market value pricing (which looks like a discount at this point), others go back to market value price.

Worst case scenario, mobil/exxon sells their oil to the other companies who now have increased demand. Small business owners of mobil/exxon gas stations get hit the hardest. Mobil/exxon stock drops 1 cent.

All we have done is slightly shifted profit to the other "evil" oil companies that are only worth $50B instead of $300B.

Plus, people are dumb, they can't be trusted to vote someone into office who isn't mentally handicapped. The average person certainly couldn't coordinate things enough to pull off this scheme.

Back when gas was starting to get over $2, I just bought 100 shares of a smaller oil/gas driller as a hedge to rising gasoline. So I pay more at the pump, but make decent gains on the stock to pretty much offset the extra amount paid for the gas.

[Ganchrow]

Here's Snopes take on this rather questionable plan:

This year's litany of complaints about gasoline prices is a re-run of the same program from years past: Gasoline prices in the USA are too high; gasoline is a unique commodity whose price isn't subject to the usual market forces of supply and demand; OPEC and greedy American oil companies secretly manipulate the market to keep prices artificially high; and a simple boycott of a couple of brands of gasoline will rectify all
this.

Oil companies can manipulate their prices somewhat by controlling how much gasoline they produce and where they sell it, but they can't alter the basics of supply and demand: prices go down when people buy less of a good, prices go up when people buy more of a good, and prices go way up when demand outstrips available supply. The "gas out" schemes that propose to alter the demand side of the equation by shunning one or two specific brands of gasoline for a while won't work, however, because they're based on the misconception that an oil company's only outlet for gasoline is its own branded service stations. That isn't the case: gasoline is a fungible commodity, so if one oil company's product isn't being bought up in one particular market or outlet, it will simply sell its output to (or through) other outlets:

Economics Prof. Pat Welch of St. Louis University says any boycott of "bad guy" gasoline in favor of "good guy" brands would have some unintended (and unhappy) results.

. . . Welch says the law of supply and demand is set in stone. "To meet the sudden demand," he says, "the good guys would have to buy gasoline wholesale from the bad guys, who are suddenly stuck with unwanted gasoline."

So motorists would end up . . . paying more for it, because they'd be buying it at fewer stations.

And yes, oil companies do buy and sell from one another. Mike Right of AAA Missouri says, "If a company has a station that can be served more economically by a competitor's refinery, they'll do it."

Right adds, "In some cases, gasoline retailers have no refinery at all. Some convenience-store chains sell a lot of gasoline — and buy it all from somebody else's refinery."

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.

[moses millsap]

Cost me $60 plus every time to fill up my Jeep. Outrageous out here with prices in the city right around $3.89

[vanman]

Cost me $60 plus every time to fill up my Jeep. Outrageous out here with prices in the city right around $3.89

Get rid of your gas guzzler then

[crackerjack]

I am seriously considering riding a bike to work (except for the fact that summer is coming and it gets hot and sticky here in Georgia...)

[Seattle Slew]

Nice effort, but it won't work. I never buy gas from Exxon or Mobil. Ever. They always are 5 to 10 cents higher than other places.

Here's the problem. Most drivers fill up without checking the price because they charge it and don't care. How many times have we seen a gas station, say $3.10, and right across the street another gag station at $3.15, with people filling up? It boggles the mind. Sometimes the price difference can be even bigger.

[QUOTE=Crayzee;271990] 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!!

[isetcap]

The higher the gas prices, the better off the planet is in the long run. In short years, the market economies of the world (led by the largest market economy) are accomplishing what environmental experts have been begging for for decades. Now that the point has been reached where alternative fuel types are less expensive to produce and consume than traditional fuels, these production methods are beginning to see true worldwide growth. New sales of low efficiency, high-consumption vehicles have fallen off the chart and companies that produce higher efficiency models are having problems keeping up with demand. Should gas prices remain at this level or higher for an even more extended period of time, a stronger foundation will form for the alternative methods and eventually traditional gasoline will become the alternative. So pay the higher prices happily knowing that they are the single most powerful force driving a necessary change. The only way to really affect the "evil" gas companies is to devalue the overspeculation of their commodity. This is most easily accomplished by effectively lowering demand for gasoline as a population.

[seaborneq]

My question is, who are the knuckleheads who have not changed their driving/spending habits that have lead to the same amount of gas consumption despite gas being at its highest amount ever? I took a road trip this past weekend and the cheapest gas on this 180 mile trip was cheapest by at least 12 cents, and when I came back past that station it had gone up 4 more cents in 24 hours. It is depressing.

[onlooker]

A $1.39? I would be happy if it dropped back down to $2.39. This $3.39 sheit is getting old, and it is only going up. Some place in Colorado is at $4.09 for regular unleaded. I just seen that crap on the news.

[tacomax]

Stop whinging you lot - move to England and you'll see what petrol prices really are. Funny that JamieUK never mentions that.

[zootiehead]

JamieUK probably has a Jersey ip address.

The US has shitty public transportation so we're pretty much stuck paying the prices or not go to work.

[bigboydan]

From the sounds of you guys elsewhere. I guess I shouldn't feel too bad paying 2.89 a gallon here right now.

[isetcap]

You might enjoy the rough equivalent of $8 a gallon they pay in London!

[mavs1978]

boooooooo hoooooooooo... everyone hates the oil companys.. what a joke.. exxon and co. do not set the oil prices the futures markets do.. they are controlled by supply and demand.. in 1998 when oil was at 12 bucks i dont remember anyone coming to the big oils rescue when they were all but dying .. let them enjoy the cycle.... by the way, we should all be thankfull for companys like exxon... without them out there spending billions on finding the worlds oil and gas we would all be really screwed... they are to be thanked not bashed

[Willie Bee]

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 = 3000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached 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!!!

Voila! Who knew it was really that easy?

This might be one of the funniest things I've read since, well, the joke about everyone not buying gas for one day