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Thu 13 Mar, 2003 01:44 pm
Pretty good idea to lower gas prices...
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 yo 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 million! s of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't whimp 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 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 and DON"T purchase ANY gasoline from EXXON and MOBIL.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 email 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.
Question do we know the other gas chains that EXXON and MOBIL own???
I don't, but they sell to all the others, and buy from all the others, depending on the particular market. We have most major brands in my little town, and they all buy from the Giant refinary. Sorry, husker, but oil and gas are the textbook of a fungible commodity.
I emailed the message to about 300 folks an notta one replied - phew! Glad I got threw that one
Gas prices here in the US are cheap. Petrol in Europe goes for four or more times the price here.
Boycott all you want to, but I make a point of driving a small car (that still doesn't get 50 mpg... )
SP, God bless you!
I was just gonna say ............ For years gasoline prices in Ireland and England have been up to $7.00 per gallon!
I don't see any decline in the purchases of SUV's or Wagons or gas guzzlers in the USA ... and.......... I don't see anyone in the USA limiting their travels or organizing their travels to coincide with their gasoline useage!
Come on America ............ let's hear your voice!!!
Terrific post Husker! And a great idea! Surely there
must be at least one gasoline company that hasn't
fixed their prices?????? And here I was, silly,
foolish woman, after all these years thinking that
the gas I buy at Flash Foods, or at an Amoco station
is different gas and from a different source. So WHAT
DO WE HAVE HERE? Do we have a monopoly in the
gas market? Do we have price fixing on the market?
How illegal!! How can they get away with this???
Started a thread today, not knowing there had been a similar one started earlier in the week by member ritajam. This is based on a conversation wtih my brother last night about the dropping price of gasoline in the US right now:
Price of Gasoline Now
We already pay about $4.00 a gallon. And the price has gone UP along with a 10% increase in the value of our currency. America has got the cheapest fuel in the world.
The variation from country to another is largely determined by taxes imposed by the final countries and states in which they are sold. Your problem is political, Wilso. They are either raising revenue, helping the environment, or reducing dependency on foreign oil.
Wilso - Is that $4.00 US? Or $4.00 Australian? I know the US has subsidized fuel, but I thought the cheapest gas in the world was in Saudi Arabia.
I would like to point out that while we have an elderly 4x4 Explorer, it is considered to be a compact (!), we also have a smaller sedan. Both of these critters get about 23 mpg. I limit my driving, offer to drive with my friends when possible, and we keep these cars in good mechanical order for their best gas mileage. I also don't drive overly fast just so that I don't waste gas. I still remember those awful even/odd days and the huge lines waiting to fill up. Ugh. The United States has chosen because of its size to rely on cars as transportation. There is not much we can do about that, other than vote for well-thought-out public transportation issues whenever they come up.
roger,
What about reserves etc. I thought the system to keep gas prices down was a lot more complex than that. And if their problem is political isn't our lack of problem in this regard also political? By that I mean ensuring more supply in unstable times etc.
I realized that I don't know enough about this system. If anyone has any good resources for me to research this please share 'em.
Er - one problem - first time I got that one, it said don't buy from BP! If I were BP I woulda started sending a copy round saying don't buy from Mobil etc.
I wonder how many versions there are now?
Don't think it would work.
For one, who knows if decreased sales at mobil/exxon would decrease overall gas prices.
On top of that, there's no way in hell an email campaign like this would make that big of an impact. Picture the headlines "Emailers unite to drop gas prices $.30/gallon!" Not gonna happen.
Besides, if Mobil or Exxon was the most convienent gas station for me to stop at, that's where I'll go. Gas prices aren't that bad here, compared to other countries.
Besides, I got an email like this 6 about 6 months ago.
Overly simplistic, Craven, but correct in essence, I believe. If Australia were paying over four time what the US is for imports, I can't believe anyone would be exporting to the US. I noticed, in another discussion on gasoline prices, that New York prices were essentially the same as New Mexico. New Mexico is a producing state and should be one the lowest, due to transportation costs. California has some of the highest prices, but is a major oil producer. From this, I conclude that taxes play a bigger role in end user prices than transportation costs.
Addendum: We should probably have higer fuel taxes in the US, to reduce dependence on imported oil, if for no other reason, with one caveat: depending on what the revenue is used for.
Oh, I agree that Oz is not paying more for the imports but thought that it was less taxes and more law, subsidy and policy that affected it.
Cali has high prices by the way because we are the 2nd largest market on earth (behind the us). Cali uses more oil than Japan. Cali also has regulations about clean fuel that make costs go up. And even if all cali's refineries worked at maximum efficiency they couldn't supply the demand.
So in the case of Cali, I think it's huge demand + clean fuel regulations instead of taxes.
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