dont_buy_gas_may_19 . Everyone complains about not being heard, so here's your chance to prove to your girlfriends that you truly are a revolutionary...that or at least a "stand up" sorta guy. forward this to all your contacts!!! IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES. AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES. THEREFORE MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR ASS" DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY. THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT. WAITING ON THIS ADMIINSTRATION TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES THAT THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO? REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO! WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE MAY 19TH A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH 040518 ... s-e-m-h peak_oil 040518 ... Dosquatch supply and demand does not work this way. Not buying gas on a particular day has no net effect if you burn the same amount of gas on that day as you would have normally. To have an impact, you'd need everybody to NOT DRIVE on that day (not likely). To have an impact on the supply and demand model, you need to consume less fuel. Don't drive as much. Buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Carpool. Take public transporation. Don't warm you car up as long in the mornings. Don't sit with your engine idling in fast-food drive-thrus, park and walk your lazy ass inside. Walk or ride a bike instead of driving places. a one-day boycott does nothing. Brand boycotts do nothing; if you get everybody to refuse to buy gas from Exxon, then Exxon will sell its product to BP and Shell. Use less product. This is the only way. 040518 ... vituperus From snopes.com: Although it went into hiding for several years, the one-day "gas out" craze is back — and with it a reminder that protest schemes that don't cost the the participants any inconvenience, hardship, or money remain the most popular, despite their dubious effectiveness. A one-day "gas out" was proposed in 1999, and a three-day-long event was called for in 2000, but both drew little participation and had no effect on retail gasoline prices because they were based upon flawed premises. This year's version is no different. First of all, everyone's "not purchasing a drop of gasoline for one day" will not cause oil companies to "choke on their stockpiles." Oil companies run their inventories on a weekly basis, and since the "gas out" scheme doesn't call on people to buy less gasoline but simply to shift their date of purchase by one day, oil company stockpiles won't be affected at all. Next, merely shifting the day of purchase will not "hit the entire industry with a net loss of over $4.6 billion." Consumers won't be buying any less gasoline under this "gas out" proposal; they'll simply be purchasing gas a day earlier or a day later than they usually would. The very same amount of gasoline will be sold either way, so the oil companies aren't going to lose any money at all. By definition, a boycott involves the doing without of something, with the renunciation of the boycotted product held up as tangible proof to those who supply the commodity that consumers are prepared to do without it unless changes are made. What the "gas out" calls for isn't consumers' swearing off using or buying gasoline, even for a short time, but simply shifting their purchases by one day. Because the "gas out" doesn't call on consumers to make a sacrifice by actually giving up something, the threat it poses is a hollow one. Not buying gas on a designated day may make people feel a bit better about things by providing them a chance to vent their anger at higher gasoline prices, but the action won't have any real impact on retail prices. An effective protest would involve something like organizing people to forswear the use of their cars on specified days, an act that could effectively demonstrate the reality of the threat that if gasoline prices stay up, American consumers are prepared to move to carpooling and public transportation for the long term. Simply changing the day one buys gas, however, imparts no such threat, because nothing is being done without. Moreover, the primary potential effect of the type of boycott proposed in the "gas out" messages is to hurt those at the very end of the oil-to-gasoline chain, service station operators — the people who have the least say in setting gasoline prices. As such, the "gas out" is a punch on the nose delivered to the wrong person. Either apathy or an outbreak of common sense has made previous "gas outs" non-events with very low levels of participation, as documented by these snippets of news accounts from across North America: Friday's gasoline boycott was an effort that sputtered, coughed, then died. Motorists continued to fill up gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles and trucks alongside smaller vehicles despite a one-day protest aimed to pressure oil companies to lower gas prices. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although a gasoline boycott that began as an electronic mail campaign kept some drivers nationwide away from the pump, dealers say they saw little, if any, effect on their traffic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Seattle, there were so many cars waiting to get into [a] Texaco station . . . yesterday afternoon that it caused a backup five cars deep into [the] right-hand lane. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reports indicated few motorists paid attention to a nationwide boycott touted initially by Internet e-mail and later by word of mouth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A planned nationwide boycott protesting the high price of gasoline didn't have much effect on local gas stations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We were expecting something substantial," said Mark Johnson, the owner of a Chevron station. "We haven't really noticed much of a difference." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Irving stations in sunny Halifax said the boycott had no effect on business. "It's been busy as a bugger here," said Bruce Riley, manager of one station. "We haven't been busier in the last two weeks," added the manager at another Halifax outlet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gas stations [in Ottawa] reported "busier than ever" conditions at the pumps on the day of The Great Internet Gas-Out. Gasoline is a fungible, global commodity, its price subject to the ordinary forces of supply and demand. No amount of consumer gimmickry and showmanship will lower its price in the long run; only a significant, continuous reduction in demand will accomplish that goal. Unfortunately, for many people achieving that goal would mean cutting down on their driving or opting for less desirable economy cars over less fuel-efficient models, solutions they find unappealing. An event like a "gas out" can sometimes do some good by calling attention to a cause and sending a message. In this case, though, the only message being sent is: "We consumers are so desperate for gasoline that we can't even do without it for a few days to demonstrate our dissatisfaction with its cost." What supplier is going to respond to a message like that by lowering its prices? 040518 ... Dosquatch That, too. 040518 ... kookaburra i shall refuse to buy gas that day...but that may be directly linked to the fact that i dont have a car... 040518 ... dosquatch ... not that any reasons to the contrary were enough to keep my local news from reporting this as gospel. <sigh> 040518 ... smurfus rex Boulder, CO has Bike to Work Day every year... Imagine if we had Bike to Work Day *every* day: 1) The obesity epidemic would start to erode away (of course, it's only an epidemic because the media says so) 2) The only "gas" you'd have to buy would be the kind you put in your stomach I live over 20 miles from where I work. Even at a medium pace, I could make it in two hours. If biking doesn't appeal to you, trade in your POS for a diesel Beetle. They get nearly twice the mileage for the same amount of fuel... 040519 ... p2 thank_you dosquatch thank_you vituperus you_said everything i_wanted_to_say 040519 ... minnesota_chris thank you p2, that's what I wanted to say! 040519 what's it to you? who go blather from