I got an e-mail, and I have nothing else worth posting
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 whimp (sic) out on me at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!
>
> I am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at least 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 generation 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 and DON"T purchase ANY gasoline from EXXON and MOBIL. That's all.
>
>
>
> How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email 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.
>
> PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK"
This was my response to my uncle who forwarded the message:
Forgive me for being a nay say-er, but I'm usually not optimistic. It's a curse that I will lift soon enough, however.
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.
That's not true. As much as consumers like to think they'll make a different, they won't. Maybe in the 18th Century, but not now. You see, if the "sellers" lowered their prices to appease it's buyers the profit margin would be eliminated and their distribution of the oil would be nothing more than goodwill. OPEC isn't filled with those kind of people. And in this day of age where production rates are become lower and lower and consumption rates are only rising -- there's no other solution then to raise the prices. Especially since demand is higher and resources are limited.
I've written a research paper on this very topic: Oil production and the OPEC industry. It deals with everything to the composition of oil, to it's politics. And to quote a section that deals with lowering prices:
Officials say there are two big factors that have nothing to do with the growing demand from China and the rest of the developing world: fear of instability and financial speculators. "If you take out the speculators' effect and the fear factor, you should be able to see oil prices $15 less than they are now," says one senior official from an oil-exporting nation. The fear factor rests in large part on Iraq, where Bush has yet to detail an exit strategy in the foreseeable future. It also rests on Russia's political future and its attitude to foreign investors in the energy industry, something President Bush will once again discuss with President Vladimir Putin next month in Moscow. As for the speculative element, some oil producers believe that rising interest rates in the United States is the best way to shift the dynamic among the hedge funds to move out of oil (Wolffe).
A third factor would be part of the stalled energy bill: reducing the regulatory burdens that have blocked investment in new refineries inside the United States (Wolffe).
Take note that is may be a bit outdated in terms of who's meeting where, but the concept is virtually relevant 4 months later, I think so anyways.
>
> 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 whimp (sic) out on me at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!
>
> I am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at least 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 generation 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 and DON"T purchase ANY gasoline from EXXON and MOBIL. That's all.
>
>
>
> How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email 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.
>
> PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK"
This was my response to my uncle who forwarded the message:
Forgive me for being a nay say-er, but I'm usually not optimistic. It's a curse that I will lift soon enough, however.
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.
That's not true. As much as consumers like to think they'll make a different, they won't. Maybe in the 18th Century, but not now. You see, if the "sellers" lowered their prices to appease it's buyers the profit margin would be eliminated and their distribution of the oil would be nothing more than goodwill. OPEC isn't filled with those kind of people. And in this day of age where production rates are become lower and lower and consumption rates are only rising -- there's no other solution then to raise the prices. Especially since demand is higher and resources are limited.
I've written a research paper on this very topic: Oil production and the OPEC industry. It deals with everything to the composition of oil, to it's politics. And to quote a section that deals with lowering prices:
Officials say there are two big factors that have nothing to do with the growing demand from China and the rest of the developing world: fear of instability and financial speculators. "If you take out the speculators' effect and the fear factor, you should be able to see oil prices $15 less than they are now," says one senior official from an oil-exporting nation. The fear factor rests in large part on Iraq, where Bush has yet to detail an exit strategy in the foreseeable future. It also rests on Russia's political future and its attitude to foreign investors in the energy industry, something President Bush will once again discuss with President Vladimir Putin next month in Moscow. As for the speculative element, some oil producers believe that rising interest rates in the United States is the best way to shift the dynamic among the hedge funds to move out of oil (Wolffe).
A third factor would be part of the stalled energy bill: reducing the regulatory burdens that have blocked investment in new refineries inside the United States (Wolffe).
Take note that is may be a bit outdated in terms of who's meeting where, but the concept is virtually relevant 4 months later, I think so anyways.