Large Scale Central

The latest "Great American Boycott"

General Discussion
#1

I’ve gotten about half a dozen e-mails and several text messages telling me I shouldn’t buy any motor fuel on May 2 to “send the oil companies a message”…Yeah, OK.

When will people learn? These things are just a waste of time and energy because they simply DO NOT WORK!!! They NEVER HAVE and they NEVER WILL. There are just too many fatal flaws in the entire premise.

First, not buying gas for ONE day means absolutely nothing. Especially since without altering your driving habits it results in a net usage change of ZERO. You will still buy same amount of fuel, just on the day before or the day after. The oil companies know this, and basically just laugh at you.

Second, to make a meaningful impact on the oil company’s sales you’d need to convince about a couple million people to join you in riding bicycles to work for about two weeks…and the odds of this actually happening are?? Yeah, I thought so.

Third, the only people who MIGHT be financially affected by this are the small gas station owners. That is kind of like kicking your dog because you’re upset with your mother-in-law…It might make you FEEL better, but you’ve actually accomplished LESS than nothing.

But, hey… like you gotta do what you gotta do…just count me out. If I happen not to buy any gas that day, it’s because it’s my day off and I stayed home anyway.

#2

Only hurts the local guy, the Suits upstairs couldnt give duckle about it.

#3
Victor Smith said:
Only hurts the local guy, the Suits upstairs couldnt give duckle about it.
That's true and the stockholders wanting a return on their investment probably feel the same. Lots of pention funds, 401k's and mutual funds are heavily invested in oil futures because of the good return.
#4

Ok while this is a flawed plan in so many ways I WILL be riding my bicycle to work as soon as the temps cooperate. Sorry is was 26 degrees out this morning and I ain’t riding in that cold! The rest of the week it will be raining. I’ll be riding as much as I can though as at $3.77 a gallon in my area and a full size van do not mix well.

Chas

P.S. Since I do own a full size van and drive it very little already I only fill up about every two weeks now. Since I fileld up this week I’ll be comlying with the “do not buy on May 2nd” request. not that it’ll do any good whatsoever. I expect gas here to be over $4 by Memorial day and closing in on $4.50 by Labor day.

#5

Geeze - If 206 is a cold day in Allegany I’d hate to feel what your highs are like :smiley:

#6

mik welcome to the governmental “Real World” of total frustration!! Did you know they developed a car that will run entirely on SAND??? Guess who owns all the SAND??? LOL They’ve had the technology for years to build a car that is fuel efficient but big oil companies have stopped them from building it and getting it to us! "Big Business rules over the little guy inventor! We all knew this was coming and did nothing to alter our driving habits at all people will still drive what they want, when they want, and will pay whatever price is out there to do so. It’s the American Way i’m guilty of it also, so i’m not trying to call the kettle black, it’s called “Human Nature” the more you don’t have something the more you want it. We will use energy until there is no more! that is the destiny of all of us whether we will admit it or not! So you not buying gas for a day would be like you know what out the window of the world! The Regal My opinion and i’m sticking to it!

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/blueregal/_forumfiles/horse.gif)

#7
W. Chas. Ronolder IV said:
P.S. Since I do own a full size van and drive it very little already I only fill up about every two weeks now. Since I fileld up this week I'll be comlying with the "do not buy on May 2nd" request. not that it'll do any good whatsoever. I expect gas here to be over $4 by Memorial day and closing in on $4.50 by Labor day.
You think you got it rough, at least you dont have to buy "special formula' to reduce smog, $4 it your area will be $4.50 here, $4.50 will likely be $5 here. My Scion breadbox gets over 30 mpg, and I'm forcing myself to drive slower (high gas prices and 2 speeding tickets will do that ;) ) and I'm seriously researching a Smart car or some kind of electric car for the daily driver. Thank goodness I dumped the Frontier when I did.
#8

"We will use energy until there is no more! "

I think this is probably a very true statement. Rather strange, but true. It could be argued that it even takes energy to breath and if we don’t have energy to breath, that will probably be the last thing a person does.

“We all knew this was coming and did nothing to alter our driving habits at all people will still drive what they want, when they want”

I don’t know if that is entirely true - we did alter our driving habits. We bought a big van and saw as much of this Continent as we could before fuel got so high we couldn’t afford it. It is not there yet and we are still planning trips, however more conservatively. We don’t know how high fuel will go, or if or what style it will be in the future, so we enjoy life as much as we can now. Drive, ride bikes, walk, take train rides, pretty well have given up on flying reminds me to much like the “cattle cars” of my early days in the military. We do know that when we are older, if we live that long, having the energy to travel or do things will have little to do with fuel availablilty, but more with natural human stamina. Freedom allows us to make our own decisions about how we spend or don’t spend our money. Really don’t care for the gummerment tellling me what kind of light bulbs to buy.

#9

The last time I flew commercial air, I got claustrophobia… for the first time ever. It is unlikely that I will ever fly again. I used to enjoy it, when I got to drive, but no more.

I think I’ll fire up the Stanley Steamer. I’ve got some wood left over from the winter. Otherwise, I’ll take the bicycle.

#10

Can you imagine what would happen to this country if every Semi-driver parked his rig, and every locomotive engineer stopped his freight train?

First a rush on foods and then other living necessities.
It would take less than one week for the good 'ole USofA to fall into complete chaos!

jb

#11

Jerry… you can stop now. That horse is dead. :wink: I’ll have to borrow that one.

I just try to grin and bear it. Our presidential candidates talk about a temporary tax break on gasoline. That might cut the price by perhaps ten cents a gallon. Over the last week its gone up by that much at my local pumps. Or we could build more refineries. How many oil companies told Congress they were interested in building more refineries. Zero. Feel free to kick me now for not buying Exxon/Mobil stock back in the day. :wink:

#12

(http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IMAGES/cartoons/toon043008.gif)

#13

I did change my driving habits, right after Katrina when gas here in NC hit $3.50 gallon. I bought a little POS car. I stay home most of the time when not working. If I do have to go somewhere I make sure I take care of all my business during that one trip. I used to go on a day trip every weekend. Those are gone now, except if something special comes up.
Most people I know have cut way back. But supply stays low because they cut production.
The futures and commodity markets are worth an essay of their own. Engines of inflation. Only in our world can you provide no service,add no value to a product, don’t take possession of the product,and still make money from said product.
When they tried to do the same thing with real estate in the savings and loan industry years ago,people went to jail.
Ralph

#14
John Bouck said:
Can you imagine what would happen to this country if every Semi-driver parked his rig, and every locomotive engineer stopped his freight train?

First a rush on foods and then other living necessities.
It would take less than one week for the good 'ole USofA to fall into complete chaos!

jb


You’re confusing two issues. Not BUYING for one day is an entirely different matter from not DRIVING for a week…see my #2.

A truck driver’s fuel protest strike will drive the price of EVERYTHING up… and STILL have minimal impact on the oil companies themselves. Sure it will force the pollies to “do something”, but will it be the RIGHT thing? Or would it be some knee-jerk, stopgap, feel good thing that will just make things WORSE in the long run?

IMO suspending the federal excise tax would be a good thing AS LONG AS they also reduce spending a like amount…but you see discretionary government spending is a kind of funny thing, it is only “pork” as long as YOU don’t see any benefit from it… if you do it is “economic stimulus” or “improvements” (think about it )

#15

While a one day protest of not buying fuel is/will be ineffectivein moving the price of whatever fuel you use a different tactic might affect a change… however short term it might be…

get enough consumers to boycott one company … pick the company… for a month or two… where sales drop 60%-70%…I bet you’ld see that company significantly dropping prices to get you back to it …then like the price wars of the 50’s and 60’s other companies would follow suit to negate the impact on their increased revenues from the boycott…

If my experience as a product manager taught me anything its corporations hate declines in sales… that will affect stock prices more than anything else…

But realistically, that kind of thing is only a very short term impact… less than 28months before our consumers alliance would breakdown and the price war would die The only true way to stop the impact is to take oil off the speculative market, increase on continent and off shore drilling, and reduce overall fuel consumption. increased Mass transit in the top 100 urban sprawls like DFW, San Antonio, Houston, Albuquerque, Denver, and more fuel efficient and cost effective cars and trucks.

Dropping the Federal Taxes on fuel will not move the price issue and may even worsen it if demand doesn’t decline. A windfall profits tax and reductions in tax credits will either just get passed thru to you and me in the price at the pump or it will reduce the incentives the current management teams of the large international oil refiners to continue to produce oil /fuels at todays volumes… thus reducing supplies and increasing prices to offset the “increased expenses” of the companies.

I don’t drive a very fuel efficient vehical… it’s a 1 ton diesel GMC dually…I pull trailers that may weigh as much as 28k lbs with my pick up. I can’t do that with a hybrid or a 1/2 ton model. So until Gm/Ford/Chrysler does come up with a more effecient and powerful motor I’m stuck with my 1 ton diesel and 12 to14 mpg empty.

Mark

P.S. For those of you that would suggest I go get an additional vehical with better milage… Even at $4.15/gallon, I can buy a lot of diesel for the equivalent of 400 to 500 semolions a payment and insurance would run me…

#16
Jon Radder said:
Geeze - If 206 is a cold day in Allegany I'd hate to feel what your highs are like :D
Damn fumble fingers!

26 (sigh)

#17

suspending the taxes won’t work either - it’s called supply and demand - if the price lowers, more oil is used = higher price, there’s only one thing that can solve the high price of gas, and thats to destroy every gas burning device on the planet,NO DEMAND = Low price

#18

Please don’t destroy the last gas burning device before the Annual Invasion this Summer. I’ve got to get the van loaded with equipment (train stuff) up to Fred’s and back. You know this whole high gasolene price thing may just be a conspiracy to undermine our invasion of the north. I can’t imagine that LGB would stoop that low. That type of logic never works, people with trains will still have fun.