Stormin Mormon
2007-05-20 12:36:00 UTC
Gas Out
Claim: Participating in a boycott of selected oil companies
will lower gasoline prices.
Status: False.
Examples:
[Collected on the Internet, 2006]
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 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 at
least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) ... and those 300 send it to at
least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 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.
Origins: This year's litany of complaints about gasoline prices
is a re-run of 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.
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. 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.
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.
Last updated: 13 April 2006
The URL for this page is
http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp
Claim: Participating in a boycott of selected oil companies
will lower gasoline prices.
Status: False.
Examples:
[Collected on the Internet, 2006]
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 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 at
least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) ... and those 300 send it to at
least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 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.
Origins: This year's litany of complaints about gasoline prices
is a re-run of 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.
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. 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.
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.
Last updated: 13 April 2006
The URL for this page is
http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp