27 March 2008
Standing Up to the Big Boys
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: World Economy .
Cavetrollhead sent this last week and I had it listed to put up then got sidetracked. His comment last night reminded me of it and I think it is a great idea to be proactive and do something about a serious problem. This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive a few years ago and is being revived. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton.
If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this summer.
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 come down?
We need to take some intelligent, united action. 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 $2.00 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $3.49 for regular unleaded in my town, Seattle.
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.
Mail this post
14 Comments so far...
Mac Says:
27 March 2008 at 12:13 pm.
This is the way to do it. Speak with our wallets. Come on people, don’t just talk to talk, do it.
Cameron Says:
27 March 2008 at 12:14 pm.
Already got this, already doing it. It is seriously the only way to get through to big oil.
Stumpy Says:
27 March 2008 at 2:01 pm.
If I put a EXX ON my still will all y’all stay away from it? My pick up will die a thirst without it.
Jan W. Says:
27 March 2008 at 2:03 pm.
Stumpy you are so silly. I’ll stay away from your still but with the price of milk I might want to borrow some milk from that donkey.
I thought I remembered this but it seems like a good idea. If enough people did it I don’t see why it wouldn’t help.
Sharon Anderson Says:
27 March 2008 at 8:17 pm.
It sounds good and I wish it would work, but at the bottom of this snopes page (link below) there are several reasons given why this won’t work. Eg. when demand at the other stations goes up they will raise THEIR prices even higher and the current high prices at the boycotted stations will look good. Also unused allotments are simply sold to others.
I think the rising gas prices reflect the falling value of the dollar and that one of the best solutions would be to access our own oil supplies. I have heard that there is an oil field in Alaska that is the largest one yet discovered, but alas there are those who profit by our dependence on foreign oil.
Joy Bischoff Says:
27 March 2008 at 9:34 pm.
I read the snopes report and don’t agree with it. I have to wonder how much power big oil has. To me it makes no sense at all that market forces wouldn’t help drive prices. It would hurt the stations that sell their gas and I don’t think they would want that. I really don’t believe it but maybe I’m wrong.
Joy Bischoff Says:
27 March 2008 at 9:51 pm.
I should put a disclaimer in here. Terrie saw this on snopes and warned me about it which I really appreciated. I read snopes and decided it didn’t make sense to me and put it up anyway so maybe both Terrie and Sharon are a lot smarter than me which wouldn’t surprise me.
I did get this from Cave and actually from a few other people so I know folks are trying to make this work and want to support it.
Sharon Anderson Says:
27 March 2008 at 10:42 pm.
You may be right, Joy. It could be that you are smarter than Snopes, Terrie and me combined (!), but I first saw this suggestion a year or two ago and I don’t think that there was a lowering of prices. Perhaps not enough people got the word and actually tried it.
Cavetrollhead Says:
27 March 2008 at 10:57 pm.
Hey thanks Joy. But you are right, you probably got it somewhere else first.
I looked at the snopes article. I thought it was more of an opinion instead of fact. Snopes is usually reliable but I think this one merits a disclaimer as being an analysis and not fact. Still Snopes take is logical.
I think this idea still is worthy of some debate.
If we did both conserve and boycott, the demand would not increase so much.
My step dad drives a propane Van. He has a connection to have them built.
Also, keep in mind not to buy Argentina gasoline. (7 11 stopped buy from Argentina BTW at least in part because of that boycott)
Cavetrollhead Says:
27 March 2008 at 11:00 pm.
BTW I also shop online a lot to avoid spending gas. (it uses less gas for them to deliver it than for me to shop it. I I can usually find better deals online)
E.E. Says:
28 March 2008 at 12:27 am.
Online shopping can avoid impulse shopping too.
SGS Says:
30 March 2008 at 6:08 pm.
It has been mentioned here a few times that the oil companies have raised the price of gas because they are greedy. The sad fact is that it is not entirely true. I am typing off the top of my head here a few articles I read some years ago, when we saw the gas price approaching 2 dollars (it was 99 cents per gal back then). I saw a few articles covering the same issues a few times since. I will try to remember what they are:
1) Our oil industry is heavily regulated by our wonderful Washington leaders. They are being told when they can extract oil and when they cannot. They are being told how the oil are to be delivered. They are being directed on where they can drill (which pretty much is nowhere in the mainland USA). They even are being told how they should mix the gas (ethol, which really is not that cheap).
2) As the result of those regulations, they have not build any of the refinery since early 1970s. Our refinaries currently are at their maximum capablity. They could have the super-pipe going straight out of Arab’s reserve to our backyard, but we won’t be able to do anything about it, because we do not have the capability to refine those extra oil into products we could use. There have been many attempts to build more, but yes, our good and all wise friends from Washington knows better.
3) Because we cannot get the oil from within our land, we have to transport them. OPEM (sp?) is the organization of the oil providers. We, of course, is a member, but because of the decreasing amount of oil we are producing, our influence had decreased greatly. OPEM is the one who determine how the oil should be priced. What this means is that we are having less and less sayings on how the oil should be priced.
4) Do not forget the taxes. Yes, there are taxes tacked on top of the price of oil. And yes, it has been increased the past few years. A cent here, a couple of cents there. But increased it did. In fact, this is almost always an item on the list to consider when the state (and federal) needs more money.
5) World-wide demand for oil — this is an obvious issue, the supply and demand scale. The more demand there are, the less supply there are, the higher cost you can raise. Many of our US companies are under no obligated to sell oil to us, when they can get a better offers in other countries. We are seeing more and more thrist for oil throughout the world. There is nothing we can do about it.
I am sure I am missing a few more things. But you get the gish that the problems go beyond the “greedy” corporations.
SGS Says:
30 March 2008 at 6:14 pm.
Cave, The 7-11 gets its gas from Citgo which is owned by Venezuela with its dictator Chavez, not Argentina. But yeah, 7-11 was struggling somewhat until it severed its relationship with Citgo. 7-11 no longer use gas from Venzuela. They did not renew the Citgo contract which expired on September 30, 2006. 7-11 has not done well in telling the public about this since then. Oh well, you can read about it here — http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,216079,00.html
Jesse Says:
30 March 2008 at 7:39 pm.
You are right about all of that but in addition the oil companies have shattered their old records for profit so it is them too. The answer to it is drilling our own oil but it doesn’t look like that will happen anytime soon.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
