This is my response to the "Gas Price War" e-mail/movement that is going around at the current time...
Hey Dude,
Think about it...
Have you ever tried a 'spending fast' where you did not spend any money for a day or a week? What happened? Did you not spend more then what you expected to the day before or the day after because you needed an extra (what ever)?
The same thing goes with the Gas Price War thing you are promoting. People are going to spend more either the day before or the day after.
The only way to 'hurt' gas companies is to ditch the gas powered mechanics. Can you do that?
If I could find away not to ride my bike through a bad neighborhood to and from work, I'd do it. One season a few years ago I saved $100 in gas over a 2 (two) month period just because i did not drive to the short places, I only drove to those places that were over 10 miles away and only then did I go there once a week and that was actually 24 miles one way or 30 the other way (route depending).
IF you could convince people to ride their bikes everywhere or to take alternate transportation, then yes the Gas Price War would work. Take a look at history with the Civil Rights movement in the 50's & 60's where the 'Blacks" (I'm not trying to be racist here) chose to boycott the mass transit system in the USA. That hurt the companies, some folded & were bailed out by the local government. A boycott like that would hurt the Gas companies today & it would make the government look seriously at promoting alternate fuels & alternate sources of energy.
Later
B
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Gas Price War
GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work
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
comedown? 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 $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It
is currently $2.79 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 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 person sends this to 10 people,
the that's 300 people ... 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 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 30 million people will have been contacted! If
it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!
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!!!
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.
