The gasoline-buying public

I got an e-mail this morning that represents a seemingly intelligent idea that has all the earmarks of an annoying chain e-mail. I’m not inclined to do the “send this to 10 people thing”, so I’m posting it here for your consideration, followed by my thoughts on why it won’t work and a bit of a rant against the people who subscribe to such silliness.

That’s right, it’s another “don’t make me come over there” scatterthought.

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GAS WAR – an idea that WILL work

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It ‘s worth your consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $1.28 a litre by the summer and it might go higher!! 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 on and join with us! By now you’re probably thinking gasoline priced at about $0.98 is super cheap.  Me too! It is currently $1.13 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 litre of gas is CHEAP at $0.98 – $1.07, 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, SHELL and EXXON. 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 SHELL and EXXON gas buyers.  It’s really simple to do! Now, don’t wimp out 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 sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) … and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 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 THIRTY MILLION people will have been contacted! 

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

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 30 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within a week!!!

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/SHELL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $0.90 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.

(Perhaps setting the goal too high, but why not see what happens? )

THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

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Yes, it can really work…in an ideal world where everyone bands together for the good of all involved. No, it won’t work for numerous reasons, of which I’ll point out three.

1. Even if you reach one-million people, there are lots more out there who won’t get the word and continue to buy at Shell and Exxon…especially if the prices go down.

2. If people continue to avoid these companies, the other gas companies have no reason to compete with them on price…in theory, as long as the other companies refuse to compete, we have to keep avoiding Shell and Exxon. Otherwise the plan breaks down. They go bankrupt and we keep paying whatever the other companies want us to pay. Assuming, of course, that reason #3 doesn’t take effect.

3. Shortly after Exxon and Shell lower prices, someone will crack and buy gas from them to save money. And once again, the system breaks down.

What we have here, folks, is a variation on the prisoners’ dilemma. If we all stick together, we all benefit. If one person sells everyone else out, that person benefits. What are the odds that everyone would agree to stick together? Not good. You’d like to think that we’ll all work together, but you know that’s not realistic.

Bottom line is that this is a very optimistic and naive idea, and that’s why it won’t work. As much as I’d love to think it would, you have to deal with the realities of the world around us. And as long as we use gasoline-consuming vehicles to get from place to place, we’re pretty much stuck with whatever prices the gas companies want us to pay.

You want a solution that immediately saves you money and will have a long-term impact on gas prices? It’s called walking. Using transit services. Riding a bike. Even driving a hybrid gas-electric vehicle.

It annoys me that people complain about gas prices but don’t change their driving habits to suit, because these people are ignoring the fact that they’re part of the problem. It’s too easy to blame the oil companies for screwing us over, or the automakers for selling big, gas-sucking SUV’s.

But someone has to buy the gas and the SUV’s.

Personally, I don’t tend to complain about gas prices, because it’s the cost of living the way I do. And to be honest, it’s not that big a deal to me since I drive maybe 10,000km annually. I could cut down on my gas usage even more if I want to, and if I did I’d complain about both the gas companies and the people who enable them to charge so much.

So to all of those who don’t realize you’re part of the problem, stop smelling the gasoline fumes and getting stupid ideas.

Don’t make me come over there.