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Hi Everybody: I just received a very interesting email and I would like to share it with you; hopefully you will share it with someone else as well. If it is true that customers control de market, maybe we can do something about the high gas prices that we're suffering from.

It's worth a try :

JUNE/17/07 8:15 AM NEW GAS WAR

A new 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 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 iit goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLIONPEOPLE!!!

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..

None of these silly schemes accomplish a thing. I seriously doubt anyone from Halliburton came up with such an idea, they are way too practical and know the industry too well. Two simple truths to keep in mind.

1. Adjusted for inflation gas was more expensive in 1981.

2. Federal government taxes on a gallon of gas are greater that the profit an oil company makes on a gallon of gas. State taxes are much more than that.

Hear any of these political bozos saying anything about reducing the tax burden? Didn't think so.

gas went up to $3.30 a gallon here today and this week all the grocery stores made big price hikes too--even Walmart has raised their prices on most everything--:hibye:

Very true, Hound Dog. For all practical purposes, we should have hit 4.00/gal in the mid-late 90s. We've been in fat city for a long time. I have decided to put the old 3/4T 4WD pickup in the barn...and get me an e-conomy car. I only need a truck a half-dozen times every year. I figured 3.50/gal would be my break even point for purchasing a vehicle that operates more cheaply.

I noticed that the last time gas prices peaked at over 3.00, grocery prices skyrocketed. When gas dropped 20%, grocery prices stayed exactly the same. Maybe we're being gouged from every quarter!

gus

Petrol (gas) rises in England affect everything, including anything you can purchase. It has a direct affect on inflation which in turn affects the bank interest rates, which affects the cost of housing.
Do have pity on us over in this grubby little island.
Gas, er petrol, is nearly £1 per litre. There are approx. 4 litres in a gallon, so that is nearly £4 per gallon. I will leave you to do the £/$ conversion.
Nah I can do it for you. About $7.9 per gallon

vicky

are you serious?? we pay the equivalent of 9$/gallon here in europe. Drive less!!! 4$... sigh!!
This kind of thing bewilders me. Strange Americans.

Move closer to your work. Grab ur bycicle, go walking, jogging to work, save money on energy use, turn off the airco/heating and go shirtless if its too hot. Cook your food only untill warm & chewable (and all your fruit raw), get your groceries on the bicycle with 2 backpacks, one on y'r back and one on the back of your bycicle (wrap the 2 straps around your seat and use the cycles binders around the front straps so it doesnt fall off to the sides). Get 2 more backpacks and do your groceries together with your neigbhour. Go to bed soon after sundown.

Be creative. Al Gores message for less energy abuse is a weak one bit it's a start.

Hmm, I suspect you don't have children or a family that comes in late to look after.

No but i suspect these kind of expenses could have been limited by choosing a good location before picking your home.

SpiceAnt,

Not only do you not have children or a family to transport, you obviously don't realize just how BIG the U.S.A. is! With all the land that we have over here, people spread out a lot!

For instance, we live 15 miles from town. We live in the desert. If we tried to do our shopping by bicycle, not only would we suffer heat stroke, but all our food would be spoiled by the time we got it home. We have to shop with an ice cooler, even in the car!

I don't know what the housing situation is over there in Europe, but over here, it is more expensive to live in a city. We would have to pay 3-4 times what we pay now for our mortgage. And we simply cannot afford that. Many people can't.

Its all well and good for you to give advice to people to "move closer to work", but what you don't understand is that WE CAN'T! Poor people are the ones suffering the most from this inflation. We can't live closer to work, and we have no public transportation out here in the suburbs. Most of our neighbors are retired, or on welfare, or work minimum wage jobs- that are far away, and barely pay for the gas to get to work!

A lot of people are taking second and third jobs, just to pay for the gas to get to their main job! I'm not kidding.

Sincerely,
and with much disgust,
Micah

I underestimated the situation of the USA grossly in my last post. Considdering how bad it is right now i strongly recommend moving to some other country if possible. It's not going to get any better then it was.

LOL...And you talk about "strange" Americans.


gus

I seriously didn't considder the USA to be in such a bad situation as Cali described.

Hi Vicky:
I didn’t know that gas prices were so high in Europe. I read not too long ago that gas prices in Venezuela were about 70 cents per gallon. Maybe moving to Venezuela might be a good idea.

Unfortunately, gasoline is the only cheap thing in Venezuela. I just read a couple of days ago about the mess that Mr. Hugo Chavez is making out of that country.

An article in the Wall Street Journal says that the people of Venezuela are suffering because the country is not producing enough food due to the fact that Mr. Chavez has taken away property rights and is not safe to invest there anymore; you can lose everything there overnight.

Isn’t amazing how incompetent man is to govern himself? On the one hand we have the greed of governments and businessmen, on the other hand we have the ignorance and incompetence of politicians.

The article says that it is impossible to buy a chicken breast in Caracas, and yet, Mr. Chavez now wants to go to Hollywood and produce movies!!!

Isn’t insane?

I wonder how much a gallon of gas costs in India and China.

If you guys really want to understand this stuff I suggest you start by reading Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics." All will be made clear.

Hi Indigo: I agree with you with some things, however, I also think that this idea has some merit. Why? Because it deals with the law of supply and demand. If we demand a product from one person and we refuse to buy from someone else, that someone else is going to get hurt financially and he is going to do whatever it takes to win his customers back. Obviously, this idea might work only if millions and millions take concerted action at the same time. If only a few thousands do it they won’t make any difference at all.

What do you think of Mr. Chavez’ latest extravaganza? Isn’t unbelievable what he does? He is going to finance two movies at 20 million each- at least-. I guess he does that because that is not his money. If it were his money I doubt he would do something like that. He is bent on imposing Communism in Venezuela even though it’s been proven time and time again that it does not work. Will we ever learn?