An alert reader writes:
> So please tell me. What do you think of the Gas Out 2000 movement?
> I have received that announcement myself, twice. Can it really make
> a difference, or are we wasting our time in not buying any gasoline
> for 3 days? (I understand it is supposed to be from April 7th
> through April 9th.)
A Gas Out is a wonderful concept, but the American people don't have the self-discipline to make it work, and here's why:
First, can the oil companies lower gas prices more than they already are doing? Remember, these guys are competing against each other for business, and the best way to steal business from your competitors is to offer a better product for the same price or a comparable product for a lower price. Since gas is pretty much gas, the only way to compete is on pricing. That's why I believe that gas prices are pretty much ruled by what OPEC is charging per barrel of oil.
But let's _assume_ that there's excess profit that can be cut out of gas prices, and fat cat oilmen are taking these excess profits out of hard working americans' pockets. Let's _assume_ you could get EVERYBODY in America to not buy a single drop of gas on April 7, 8 or 9th. Now let's take a hypothetical trip into the board room of a major american oil company on May 5th...
Sir, the April sales numbers are in.
Good. How did we do?
Overall sales for the month were up 2.3% from the same time last year, sir.
Great. Keep up the good work, Davis.
Thank you, sir.That's it. Do they see that not one drop of gas was bought on April 7, 8 or 9? No, because record amounts of gas were bought on April 4, 5, 10 and 11. In the end, no less gas was bought, so the oil companies don't care.
For a Gas Out to _really_ work, people need to decrease how much gas they buy over an entire _month_. Or, even better, two months. Or three. Or a year.
How do people do this? By driving less, or by not buying that SUV that gets 18 MPG and buying cars like the Honda Insight that get 70 MPG. By taking public transit if they're in an urban area, by carpooling or by saving up tasks and making one trip deal with several chores.
I think a Gas Out is a wonderful Idea. I just think we should do it right. The method that is being proposed via the email that's being passed around is so half-assed as to be counter productive: people THINK they're making a difference, so they have no motivation to do things that would _actually_ make a difference.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/urbanlegends/library/weekly/aa030100a.htm
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
Unless, of course, it was a dumb idea in the first place like the "Great Gas Out" of 1999. Remember?
It all began with an anonymous email inciting Americans to protest high gasoline prices by boycotting the pumps on April 30. "Know what I found out?" the message teased. "If there was just ONE day when no one purchased any gasoline, prices would drop drastically."
Well, who says a brilliant insight has to make sense?
Gas prices had risen conspicuously in the early months of 1999, especially in California, and American consumers were incensed. The email manifesto played on that anger, speeding from coast to coast along the information highway, inspiring a Website, eliciting lip service from politicians. By April 30 the Great Gas Out had all the appearances of an actual protest.
The idea was this: by putting a dent in the oil companies' pocketbooks, however slight, consumers could thereby send a message to The Powers That Be, compelling them to lower prices. What no one ever bothered to explain, however, was exactly how buying gas a day earlier or a day later was supposed to achieve that. Economists pointed out that an effective boycott required less consumption of gasoline. But that did not deter the angry masses.
There was plenty of media buzz by the time the big day arrived, and TV crews could be found lurking at gas stations everywhere to document the insurrection. What they captured on tape, for the most part, was folks filling their tanks as usual. A few people did stay away from the pumps, but in the end the protest was a bust, and, as predicted, had zero effect on gas prices.
Send the list to your friends!!!! This forward will make a difference!!!! Anytime we can stick it to them it's a good day.
Last year on April 30,1999, a gas out was staged across Canada and the U.S. to bring the price of gas down, and it worked. It's time to do something about it again.
This time, lets make it for three days instead of just one. The oil cartel decided to slow production to drive up gasoline prices. Lets see how many Canadian\American people we can get to ban together for a three day period in April, NOT TO BUY ANY GASOLINE, during those three days.
LETS HAVE A GAS OUT. Do not buy any gasoline from APRIL 7, 2000, THROUGH APRIL 9, 2000. Buy what you need before the dates listed above, or after, but try not to buy any during the GAS OUT. If you want to help, just send this to everyone you know and ask them to do the same. We brought the prices down once before, and we can do it again! Come on North America lets stand together.
WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Even if you receive this 100 times keep passing it around, this way you know everyone is being informed and no one will forget!!!!!!!!You can't blame someone for trying. Or can you? The author claims not once, but twice that the 1999 boycott "worked." Well, if the first Gas Out was so goshdarned effective, I wish someone would explain to me why we have to do it again.
Nevermind the anonymity of the message, the misspellings, the unsubstantiated claims; nevermind that at least three different boycott dates have been specified in various versions. The main thing wrong with Gas Out Y2K is that it's based on the same flawed premise as last year's fiasco. Nobody's going to make an impression on OPEC by buying gas on one day instead of another.
Yet I predict this campaign will become very, very popular. Why? Because, alongside the fact that Americans can be roused into a "We're not going to take it anymore!" fervor at the drop of a hat, this is all taking place on the Internet where, as I write, tens of thousands of people are forwarding loved ones another email alert falsely claiming that grocery store bananas are infected with a deadly, gangrene-causing disease (http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/urbanlegends/library/blbananas.htm). If you show signs of illness, the email instructs, you must burn the infected flesh to prevent the disease spreading.
The Internet, I'm trying to point out, is a kooks' paradise. Anybody with a keyboard and a modem can spread fear, loathing, and just plain asinine ideas among hundreds of thousands of people with the click of a button. Discouraging, but true.
The Gas Out message will cause no great harm, but it will become a major nuisance as the weeks wear on and its circulation increases geometrically. Prepare to find it in your inbox time and time again between now and April 7th. It will rile folks up, which wouldn't be a horrible thing.
But it won't accomplish what it says it will. It's a kooky idea.