Gas Prices Won't Come Down in a Day

Today - Thursday March 10, 2011 - nobody is supposed to buy gas.

This nationwide boycott is being spread via all the social media available, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, email and probably carrier pigeon.

With the national average cost of a gallon of regular gas at $3.50 and rising it's easy to understand the motivation behind the movement.

Joe Citizen is frustrated beyond imagination...again.

This is at least the fourth time in the last fifteen years that one of these boycotts has been proposed - and every time it happens I get really frustrated.

Not because of the price of gas, but because these "National Don't Buy Gas" days don't do anything - yet hundreds of thousands of people seem to think it's going to bring Big Oil to its knees.

Really?

I've asked dozens of people to explain the logic to me and the answer, while slightly varied, always boils down to essentially this;

"If nobody buys gas on Thursday it will cost the oil companies millions of dollars and they'll have to listen to us ."

Really?

Did it work the last time? How about the time before that?

What makes anybody think it will work this time?

Here's the way I see it...

Most people use the same amount (give or take a few gallons) of gas from week to week.

Let's say, for the purposes of this discussion, that you use twenty gallons of gas each week to get back and forth to work, run your errands and do some travelling on the weekend. At today's prices that's about $70.

Now - suppose you agree not to buy gas on Thursday...unless you change your driving habits you'll still need your twenty gallons for the week. Ipso facto - instead of filling up on Thursday - you'll fill up on Wednesday or maybe put it off until Friday or Saturday.

One way or the other - Big Oil is getting your $70.

To make matters worse - if you wait until Saturday, there's a decent chance the price will go up and your $70 will turn into $75.

Who's the fool?

Let's look at it another way.

Suppose you were the sole distributor of oxygen on the planet.

Every living being relies on you to breathe and you charge them for it.

Eventually they get sick of paying your prices so they organize and decide to band together at noon and all hold their breath to force you to lower your price.

Are you going to be scared?

Mostly you'll just sit there laughing because you know they can't hold their breathe too long.

Now - what if one of the people in the group stood up in front of everybody and announced he had discovered a new substance to breathe - rendering your oxygen useless.

Are you scared now?

Damn right you are. As quick as that you'll be dropping your prices and trying to convince people to use your oxygen instead of this newfangled bullcrap.

Suddenly - the tides have turned and you now need the consumer more than they need you.

Your prices will drop faster than Sarah Palin's popularity.

The moral of the story is this...

If we want to get Big Oil to lower their prices we won't do it by boycotting gas for a day.

The only way it will be effective is if we drastically reduce the amount of oil we buy on a regular and permanent basis.

That means YOU have to change your lifestyle.

Drive less. Use less energy.

Not just today - EVERY DAY.

Boycotting gas for one day won't get their attention...all they do is sit back and chuckle because they know we can't hold our breath too long.