A quick Monday morning note...

[mapsedge]

It's making the rounds again.  The Great American Gas-Out.  A good friend of mine, who I thought would have known better, emailed it to me this morning. 

Common sense and simple math make such a gesture not only ineffectual, but actually hurt the wrong people.  Here, have a rebuttal:

The premise behind all these messages is inherently flawed, because consumers' not buying gasoline on one particular day doesn't affect oil companies at all.  The "gas out" scheme doesn't call upon people to use less gasoline, but simply to shift their date of purchase and buy gas a day earlier or later than they usually would  The very same amount of gasoline is sold either way, so oil companies don't lose any money.

Want lower gas prices?  Don't drive as much; buy a hybrid; ride a bike, or walk.  Decrease demand.

Full article at:

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

Comments

[iarraidh.livejournal.com]

I don't think the rules that affect textbook markets apply to oil prices, since the price is artificially set to begin with.

They know we need to use the fuel, and there is a minimum amount of driving we will do regardless of price.
A slight dip in demand will probably INCREASE price per gallon so they can maintain profit margins.

We as a culture lack the resolve to drop demand to a point where they would actually entertain the notion of dropping the price. And they KNOW that. They COUNT on it.

And they are Right.

[butterflybill.livejournal.com]

I agree. You're just fucking over your local convenience store owner by doing this, you aren't hurting the big oil companies at all.

[the-themiscyran.livejournal.com]

Want lower gas prices? Don't drive as much; buy a hybrid; ride a bike, or walk. Decrease demand.

Add to that: Buy food as locally as possible, in order to decrease the number of miles it travels from production to plate. Personally, I'm okay with only having strawberries in summer and citrus when Florida and California can provide it. Hail damaged oranges can still make juice. I'm not worried about scurvy. :)