Tell us what you're really thinking!
According to email forwards and facebook, this "Gas Out" scheduled for May 15th is brewing across America.
The plan, if you haven't heard, is to have everybody strike against buying gas that one day, so that gas stations, nationwide, will be withheld from the billions of dollars in income that they would typically receive in a day. This would be a big enough cut in income to send the message that America is sick of the $3.00 gallon of gas (though, ofcourse, not sick of our Escalades and Excursions built for two - two times as much gas, two parking spaces to fit one, and two person households that own them.)
Now, chances are, since I only fill up my tank every week and a half to two weeks, I wouldn't buy gas on May 15th anyway. I might even go out of my way to fill up on the 14th, if I see that I am running low, so I can give credit to the good intentions of the protesters.
Two fallacies though: First, it's not as if less gas is going to be purchased. I bet gas stations will double their income on the 14th from all the customers who want to make a statement the next day.
Second, their main validation for this protest and their argument for its effectiveness is that in 1997 this same method led to a 30 cent drop in gas prices overnight. Who remembers the gas strike last year? And probably the year before? How come those aren't used as examples? How come the only example of this working that can be conjured took place 10 years ago?
Hmm, something to think about..
I'm not trying to be a party-pooper here. Like I said, I am 99% sure I won't buy gas on the 15th. But I'm also not going way out of my way. Maybe I just don't have a vast enough understanding of economics, it just seems like there are better ways to protest, if that's really what you are intending to do. Like, maaaybe, protests that involve actual sacrifices and that have a cost to show how sincere you are about your statement.
Just a suggestion though...
I don't like rising gas prices, but neither do I have to pay $75 a tank, twice a week, to carry my little tikes to their yoga classes..
You are on the inside though! You should be telling us the real way to break down the oil industry and make them cower in our fists!
How would my being on the inside enable me to know how to bring the oil industry down? The oil industry (like most industries) is governed by forces of supply and demand and if you consumers can not even go without buying gas for more than a single day then I don't think that gas prices will go down any time soon. I think that the basic premise for a Gas Out is a good one (i.e. stop giving big oil money). However, it would seem that if people really wanted to incite some change in gas prices they would need to stop buying gas for several weeks or months even. Also a real boycott involves altering one's lifestyle in order to do without something, not, as somegirl mentioned above, simply shifting the date you purchase it.
Rosa Parks didn't decide to take the 11:30 bus instead of the 9:00 bus, she walked.
The US with 5% of the world's population uses 45% of all gasoline produced and despite high gas prices demand continues to go up every year. Seeing as I have not lived in the US my whole life (or for the past 3 weeks) I will again ask you, the consumers and source of high prices, how I can bring Big Oil down. Any more ideas?
Why was I not told about this until now? Alas, I will be on an offshore oil rig on the 15th and unable to participate in the boycott since I can't not go to the gas station that day. Perhaps there is some way I can take them down from the inside? Any ideas?