[Prairiegreens] Re: [Imc] Fwd: Don't Buy Gas on June 1st

[John Wason]

At 08:37 PM 5/22/01 -0500, Arun Bhalla wrote:

>This sort of message (which is almost an urban legend now) goes out 
>across the net everytime gas prices get high.  (Incidentally, it seems
>that gas prices have already dropped from their recent peak.)  It would
>be great if such a boycott were happening across the country simultaneously,
>but even then, this boycott is only effective if gas *usage* decreases.
>Gas companies will never notice a one-day boycott if usage remains the
>same.  Think about what would happen -- people participating in the boycott
>would simply increase gas purchases on May 31st or June 2nd.  Let's say
>that gas/oil companies look at revenue on a weekly basis, which seems 
>reasonable to me.  In that case, there wouldn't even be a glitch in their
>sales.
>
>The best way to get prices to drop is to consider using gas-free or
>gas-efficient alternatives as a regular part of your lifestyle.  An ideal
>situation at the minimum, in my opinion, would be having a gas boycott
>from June 1-3 (the whole weekend), with wide media exposure (indy and
>commercial) so that the general public know to boycott, and the gas companies
>know what's going on.
>
>Arun

You make an excellent point, Arun.  I guess I just jumped on the bandwagon,
and didn't think it through carefully enough.

I wish I had years ago consciously constructed the sort of lifestyle where
I wasn't so dependent on the automobile.  But if it isn't Big Oil it's Big
Natural Gas or Big Electricity or somebody else, it seems.  We really have
to, individually and collectively, figure out ways of becoming less
dependent on the Corporate Monlithy.

John