High Fuel prices Fight Back (vehicle, miles per gallon, buy, bike)

[TheHandyman]

I got this email the other day, the funny thing was I was about to write one just like it and send it out. I don't know how accurate the numbers are but I feel it should bring the prices down. I know some of you are going to think to deep into it thats ok, but I think if we all copy it and send it out something good could happen. As you know as fuel prices rise so does everything else!!!!
It takes fuel to move all our product from one place to another, if you look on some of your bills, you'll see FUEL SURCHARGE. Airlines are going out of business, people are losing thier jobs. It will not hurt you to try this, and doesn't cost you anything to copiy and paste, please give it a shot!!


Moderator cut: Chain e-mail removed

[KevK]

You are not supposed to post chain letters in here. I doubt it will work anyway. The oil companies know you will be back tomorrow to buy from them- no matter what they charge.

[NWPAguy]

This will never work. If everyone makes a concerted effort just not to buy gas, then gas will go back down to $1.00/gallon. However... how many of us really will do that? For many of us, we MUST drive or else we won't be able to make money. Maybe there are other things we MUST do and we MUST drive to do them because, for instance, the weather sucks and it's riany or snowy or whatever. (I have errands to run today and the high temperature is going to be 71 in my area. I'd use my bike under those conditions... IF it wasn't pouring.)

If we don't buy gas from ExxonMobil (which is ONE company, by the way, not more than one), we will buy more gas from the other companies... which will then run out of their supply an awful lot quicker and be forced to buy oil on the spot market (which is more expensive than oil bought on the futures market)... their purchase of more oil to satisfy the increased demand at their pumps will mitigate ExxonMobil's purchase of less oil to satisfy lesser demand at their pumps.

I hate to say this, but the only way that we're going to bring gas prices down is to change our ways. Nobody wants to stop driving, and few people want to give up the safe large vehicles they've been using. So, let's think about other things. Let's erect tons of windmill farms and solar farms, so that our electricity-generating plants don't have to use as much diesel fuel. Let's heat our houses with coal and wood (which DO require more effort from the homeowner than an automatically running electric/oil/gas furnace) instead of oil. Better yet, let's move away from cold areas of the country and into warmer areas, so that heating fuel won't be anywhere near as important.

Also, let's stop using plastic products and go back to metal and glass. Plastic sucks anyway... it's cheap and it breaks easily... and let's face it... if plastic bottles were so great for beverages, why is it that 98% of beer bottles are still glass? Glass comes from SAND. Metal comes from MINES. We have plenty of these in AMERICA. The more plastic products we buy, the more we support OPEC.

Hey, by the way, speaking of supporting OPEC, they are trying to snow us by telling us that prices for oil are high because of increased demand in countries like China and India. Guess what... AMERICA IS TO BLAME FOR THAT. We buy all kinds of cheap garbage from China and outsource our jobs to India... and then we wonder why our economy is faltering while theirs is booming. Those countries are SOCIALIST, for goodness sakes... there are fewer true incentives for businessmen to build businesses in those countries than there are for such people to build businesses in a capitalist country like America... one would think that their economies shouldn't be doing so well. But, Americans have exercised their freedom yet again and have decided as a moronic collective to buy all kinds of stuff that's made in China and patronize companies that moved their call centers to India. I know that sometimes it's impossible to get a particular item that's made in America because all of the manufacturing of that item has been outsourced... but we can still look on the tags and on the boxes, and choose not to purchase something that's made in China. We stop buying from China, their oil demand will plummet and America's gas prices will go down.

People like to thump their tubs about large vehicles and how they are keeping us dependent upon OPEC for oil and blah blah blah blah. Check this out... the average vehicle these days gets a bit more than 20 miles per gallon and the average American drives 12,000-15,000 miles per year. Let's say that it's 20mpg and 15,000 miles per year. One barrel of crude oil is 42 gallons, and it doesn't take an entire gallon of crude to make a gallon of gasoline but for the sake of this approximation, let's say it does. 15,000 miles @ 20mpg = annual gasoline consumption per driver of 750 gallons. 750 gallons is approximately the amount of heating oil that it takes to heat a small house for a Pennsylvania winter. Want to decrease your oil comsumption by half? Change your furnace! You CAN do that. Chances are you CAN'T stop driving.

[sean98125]

Or you could just cut your driving or fuel consumption in half and have the same effect on your pocketbook.

[NWPAguy]

Originally Posted by sean98125

Or you could just cut your driving or fuel consumption in half and have the same effect on your pocketbook.

I'd venture to say that most people who CAN do this already have. I'm pretty young and I still remember gas being 99 cents/gallon when I was in college. Nobody ever imagined it'd become this expensive. The only reason why people keep buying this expensive gas is because they HAVE to. Rarely is it a matter of "they want to" anymore.

[TheHandyman]

Originally Posted by KevK

You are not supposed to post chain letters in here. I doubt it will work anyway. The oil companies know you will be back tomorrow to buy from them- no matter what they charge.

I didn't think it was a chain letter. It's not asking you spend any money just try and find a way to save some. and no I won't be back tomorrow or the next day or the day after that to buy gas or diesel from exxon or mobil. here think about this. You need food right? if everyone stopped going to say for example food lion, and went some where else. What would food lion do? I think they would lower prices to get their customers back. What would you do if you owned a store and one day people stopped buying from you and never came back to your store? you have inventory and bills to pay???

[Tek_Freek]

snopes.com: Gas Out

I am constantly amazed at the low level of intelligence of the American population.

[kreist]

This reminds me of an article I read back in the late 70's written by an economist during the last "energy crisis". He claimed that consumers can have a big impact on the local price of gas by using a strategy he called "picking on the big guy". It's meant to be an ongoing long term consumer strategy, not a "let's do this for 1 week", or "we should all do this during the month of July". The strategy goes something like this. Step 1: determine which chain of gas stations has the greatest market share (the most stations) in your area. If you don't already know, it is pretty easy to figure out with just a little research in your local yellow pages. For example, in Kalamazoo Michigan, Speedway has the most stations (9). Therefore, Speedway has the greatest market share in Kalamazoo. Usually, the chain that has the greatest market share ("the big guy") has alot of control over the prices in their area. Step 2: Don't buy from the chain with the greatest market share ("the big guy") unless they are at least 5 cents /gallon cheaper than all the other stations in your area. Chances are pretty good that they are going to do everything possible to retain their market share and to do this they need to keep their stations in business, so their price will have to come down. Then, when all the other stations see that "the big guy" has lowered his prices, they will follow suit. Now "the big guy" isn't 5 cents cheaper than everyone else anymore so you stop buying from him again, and then the whole process repeats itself. Almost every other commodity's price is determined by what the consumer is willing to pay for that commodity. Gasoline is a comodity who's price seems to be locally determined by price fixing and whoever has enough market share to control the price in their area. If all consumers followed this strategy, gasoline would become a comodity who's price is determined by the consumer. Which is how it should be. Also, the reason I like this strategy is because it attacks the guys who have been fixing the prices in your area all along. Which is also how it should be. There is really only one obstacle to this strategy, how do you get everyone on board? In the 70's, there weren't websites, blog pages or mass e-mailings. Today, this strategy could be heavily publicized and has a pretty good chance to work, which is why I have decided to resurrect it and post it here. Spread the word to everyone you know before "the big guys" start trying to put the screws to all of us again this summer. They've already started raising prices again in my area, probably in yours too. Circulate E-mails about this strategy to all your family and friends. Start consumer group websites or blog pages in your area that publicize this strategy. Cut and paste this post on to any websites or blog pages that have appropriate content for this message. Remember $4.00+ / gallon gas prices last summer? Remember how the oil companies all made obscene record profits last year? What makes you think that they aren't planning to do it all again? This is probably be the easiest most effective thing that you can do to fight back other than carpooling, walking, biking, riding the bus or buying a more efficient vehicle. You probably should still do it even if you are taking one or more of these other steps.

[Omaha Rocks]

The Big Oil Companies are going to do everything in their power to screw over the consumer, and make as much money as possible. That's what businesses do.

The bottom line is that we ALL need to drive less miles, or whatever is necessary, to buy less gas.

$4.00 per gallon gas doesn't affect me if I'm riding my bike.

Unfortunately, there are many people and businesses who really can't cut their consumption drastically...

[M3 Mitch]

Originally Posted by Tek_Freek

snopes.com: Gas Out

I am constantly amazed at the low level of intelligence of the American population.

Don't be. Remember half the population has an IQ below 100.