Gas Prices

[Steven Hockstein]

I was sent this today. Seems logical. Comments?

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 $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. 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 hurt ing 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 exp lain how simple it is to reach

millions of people.

I am sending this note to 30 people (Posting it here reaches many more than that). If each of us sends 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 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!!!

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

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!!!

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/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.

THIS CAN REALLY WORK

[homnspector]

Sounds good, the only problem is how do you know which independent companies ultimately get their gas from Exxon. Many I would bet. Problems with these boycotts is that they hurt the franchise owner much more than the company. I think the only real answer is long term reduced demand, i.e., alternative fuel.

Also, I realize prices are demand driven, but the prices are set by the commodities market, not the oil companies. Even if you reduce demand in the US, it isnt going to affect prices much unless you can convince the Chinese and India to also stop buying. Its a world market, and "There,s alot of consumin goin on out there".

[StevenT]

For some time now, I don't buy gas on Saturdays, I simply make sure I fill up the day before so I don't run out. [:-crazy]

I agree with the post above re alternative fuels. Not only would it resolve the issue of high gas prices, which would effect many other things that have skyrocketed in price. But, it would also take down our enemies. [:-thumbu]

I am not going to get into politics, but, we need a president that will get that done for us, regardless of party affiliations.[:-thumbu]

On a personal level, Think french fries![:-bulb]

[Terence McCann]

What is quite funny is that we went through this in the 70's. There was coffee shortage, gas shortage, bacon shortage, you couldn't even get a toilet.

Jimmy Carter put tough standards on the automakers for fuel efficiency's. When Regan took office they removed the mileage standards.

Let's see, we bailed Kuwait out, Bush and the Saudie's hold hands, we own Iraq. Oh, that's right, it's Iran's fault.

It's a bunch of BS, just like it was in the 70's.

It cracks me up to think that I use to pump gas for 29 cents a gallon.

[StevenT]

Terry,

29 cents a gallon? You must be an "old dog" like me.

[Paul MacLean]

I received the same email.

Refineries and distributors sell gasoline to all oil company service stations, major and minor. If you stop buying at Exxon/Mobil and buy at brand X instead, the refinery is still selling the same amount of gasoline and refinery prices will be unaffected. Your boycott may effect Exxon/Mobil stations, but it won't effect the price of gas.

This is yet another internet hoax. It won't work.

[mgbinspect]

Yup, I got it too. I don't typically buy from the big names anyway. I think Paul's hit the nail on the head. I deleted it. If anything will ever affect the market it will be the public moving toward another fuel source.

[hausdok]

Hi,

A very good way to spread a virus around via email. Set your firewalls and virus scan programs guys. Here we go again!

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Terence McCann]

Once they have had their way with you, and are sitting back feeling pretty full and content they may let up a bit, but I wouldn't count on it.

It's just like Regan and the era of the shortage.

As soon as the prices go up to where they think they need to be, the pump will flow free.

Remember history people.

[Steven Hockstein]

Originally posted by hausdok

Hi,

A very good way to spread a virus around via email. Set your firewalls and virus scan programs guys. Here we go again!

OT - OF!!!

M.

I NEVER download attached files unless I know the source and origination of the file. I don't worry about text contained within Email but I do agree that scanning emails, updating and running antivirus software and keeping current on your firewall is great advice!

Thanks for the input on the gas boycott, great points from all. I did not forward it to anyone and will respond to the sender with some of your comments.

[Jack Ahern]

I was a brand new 16 year old driver. I choked at $.19/gal( 1958 ).A set of tires cost more than my first car.[:-banghea

Jack Ahern Needham on the Charles

Bridgton, Maine

[hausdok]

Hi,

Jack just reminded me.

A little thread drift here. Did a stint as the youngest ARCO dealer in the country from April 1971 until December 1971 (A broken femur put me out of business). I used to sell nylon bias-ply tires back then at 'cut-rate' prices of about $35. to $40. each (My cost was about $20 - $25. each) Radials were at least twice that and steel-belted radials nearly 3 times that. Everybody loved my prices and I had a rip-roaring business in tires alone.

Today, you can get 4 radials, mounted and balanced, for $100. Granted, they are small sizes but still, even for the more common sizes you're looking at about $150 before federal taxes. How is it that rubber prices have stayed so stable, even gone down, and petroleum still keeps going up when there is so much more production now than then?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[homnspector]

Mike, my guess would be "made in China. Now,if we could just get them to refine oil......

Lowest i remember is 29.9/gal.but I'm younger than most of you codgers.

[mgbinspect]

More thread drift, but this reminds me of the gasoline shortage.

I remember electing to pull into a gas line on a "even day" that was about 35 cars long {short). When I finally reached the front of the line of this little gas station and repair garage,which was about a mile from my very rural home, I was informed that since I wasn't a regular customer and the owner didn't personally know me, five gallons was all I could have. That wasn't much for an F-250 with a V-8. In fact, it was just enough to get me to the city to get into another line.

Also, if memory serves me right one of the big fears was gas cresting $1.00 (along with bread which was supposed to be one of a thousand indications that the world was coming to an end.)

[BlackJack]

This is an urban legend and is completely false. We are over Ahab the Arab's barrel.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

Gas Out

Claim: Boycotting a couple of gasoline brands will bring overall gas prices down.

Status: False.

Origins: This year's litany of complaints about gasoline prices is a re-run of the same program from years past: Gasoline prices in the USA are too high; gasoline is a unique commodity whose price isn't subject to the usual market forces of supply and demand; OPEC and greedy American oil companies secretly manipulate the market to keep prices artificially high; and a simple boycott of a couple of brands of gasoline will rectify all this.

Oil companies can manipulate their prices somewhat by controlling how much gasoline they produce and where they sell it, but they can't alter the basics of supply and demand: prices go down when people buy less of a good, prices go up when people buy more of a good, and prices go way up when demand outstrips available supply. The "gas out" schemes that propose to alter the demand side of the equation by shunning one or two specific brands of gasoline for a while won't work, however, because they're based on the misconception that an oil company's only outlet for gasoline is its own branded service stations. That isn't the case: gasoline is a fungible commodity, so if one oil company's product isn't being bought up in one particular market or outlet, it will simply sell its output to (or through) other outlets:

Economics Prof. Pat Welch of St. Louis University says any boycott of "bad guy" gasoline in favor of "good guy" brands would have some unintended (and unhappy) results.

. . . Welch says the law of supply and demand is set in stone. "To meet the sudden demand," he says, "the good guys would have to buy gasoline wholesale from the bad guys, who are suddenly stuck with unwanted gasoline."

So motorists would end up . . . paying more for it, because they'd be buying it at fewer stations.

And yes, oil companies do buy and sell from one another. Mike Right of AAA Missouri says, "If a company has a station that can be served more economically by a competitor's refinery, they'll do it."

Right adds, "In some cases, gasoline retailers have no refinery at all. Some convenience-store chains sell a lot of gasoline — and buy it all from somebody else's refinery."

A boycott of a couple of brands of gasoline won't result in lower overall prices. Prices at all the non-boycotted outlets would rise due to the temporarily limited supply and increased demand, making the original prices look cheap by comparison. The shunned outlets could then make a killing by offering gasoline at its "normal" (i.e., pre-boycott) price or by selling off their output to the non-boycotted companies, who will need the extra supply to meet demand. The only person who really gets hurt in this proposed scheme is the service station operator, who has almost no control over the price of gasoline.

The only practical way of reducing gasoline prices is through the straightforward means of buying less gasoline, not through a simple and painless scheme of just shifting where we buy it. The inconvenience of driving less is a hardship too many people apparently aren't willing to endure, however.

[cpimike]

As long as we have government

Of the rich, By the rich, And for the rich, Meaning the Dems and repubs, we will continue to be ripped off by the special interests, was it Jackson that said something about a revolution every 20 years keeps the wealth from over consolidating?

[hausdok]

Okay Folks,

Our subjects have been getting a little far afield lately and I think it's time I reminded everyone that TIJ is here to discuss home inspection related stuff. I've taken a look at the threads for the past couple of weeks and we suddenly seem to be talking about a lot of stuff totally unrelated to home inspections. We've always had some of that here but for the past few weeks the number of non-home-inspection-related topics has gone way outside of the normal drift curve. I know I'm as guilty as anyone else, and haven't been helping by not putting a stop to it earlier, but we really need to dial it back. Home inspections is why most of our readership comes here. This non-inspection prattle is interesting to the few of us who take part in it but pretty boring for the majority of the readership. So let's keep that in mind and keep it about home inspections shall we?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike