Summer is coming, and with it a renewed hype about gas prices (talk about self-fulfilling prophesies). So of course, today I received yet another ”Gas War” viral email (see below… original eye-popping formatting included). This looks like a more recent strain of an old ideavirus, the one about how if Everyone doesn’t buy gasoline for One Day (or One Supplier), then Big Oil would have No Choice but to Lower Prices.
Of course, even a theoretically large scale deferral of purchases for day (or even a week) would not really change the gasoline market, and have next to zero effect on supply/demand pricing. Similarly, a large scale shifting of purchases from one supplier to another (or all others) would also have minimal effects on the markets. In theory there might be repercussions within the gasoline wholesale/reseller market itself if end-users were showing a sustained preference for certain retail outlets, but it would do next to nothing in terms of overall prices.
If consumers could rally a large scale reduction on overall consumption, THAT would have an effect on prices.
How much effect? Well, almost as much effect as that of some thug/maniac leader of an oil-producing country, who can drive up his own export prices by making a single belligerent statement. Now there’s a good “get rich quick” scheme, if there ever was one.
-<>-
original spam message follows… view at own risk…
Nothing else has worked. May as well try this.
I’m gonna include Citgo also. Chavez’s outfit.
Charlie
NEW GAS WAR - a new idea that WILL workThis 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 the end of this 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 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 of us sends it to just 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…. Well, let’s face it, you just aren’t a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.)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
This will only work if everybody, sending this on will; FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS, BUT; I’m sure, there are a lot of people, who can afford the higher prices ; ….and…., will keep on paying them from both of these companies. Going to a different station will be too much to ask. Money is not their problem. Convenice is.
BELIEVE IT,
Fritz
Filed under: Diversions
