Last updated on March 10, 2011
I just saw this on Facebook:
“OKAY! WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!! Gas Strike March 10th! This worked once before…let’s try it again. On March 10 if everyone does not buy gas for one day, it will hurt the oil companies. It’s time we stood up to them. We CAN have a voice…REMEMBER “MARCH” 10th DO NOT BUY GAS! Please repost this to as many people as you can…it is urgent that this spreads like wildfire!
PS: Try not to fill up the day before or after so that this day will have an impact on the companies
Thanks”
Annoying statements in ALL CAPS and questionable punctuation (or lack thereof) aside, I just wanted to state for the record that this is a really, really stupid idea.
Why? Because whatever gas you don’t buy today, you will have to buy tomorrow. Deciding not to buy gas today is not like forgoing a meal at McDonald’s: if you don’t eat at McDonald’s today, you’re unlikely to make up for it tomorrow. But if you don’t buy gas today and still drive to work, you’re going to have to make up for the gas you used today sooner or later.
Instead of acting on their emotions, people should think about this rationally. You want to stick it to gas companies? Cool. Why not take the bus or carpool to work? Better yet, why not bike to work or telecommute? If enough people chose one of these options instead of blindly following others into a “gas strike,” gas companies might actually be stuck with an excess supply of gas and may have to lower their prices as a consequence.
In the long run, why not buy a hybrid vehicle or simply move closer to work? I was once told — and am inclined to believe — that your happiness is maximized by making the triangle defined by your home, your work, and your kids’ school as small as possible.
Sadly, I’m afraid few people are going to adopt any of the options I’ve just enumerated, because those actually require a real commitment to changing things instead of just talking, and heaven forbid US consumers should give anything up, right?
The price of gas is high, but come on, folks, let’s face it: gas strikes are the result of knee-jerk emotional reactions and bad economics. In other words: Gas strikes don’t work.
An option that could work is not boycotting “gas” itself but boycotting one gas company…like Shell…for 1 week. And then do Chevron the next week. Obviously not everyone is on facebook or the internet for that matter so it’d be difficult to get word out but those companies would literally freak out if our American Public pulled something off like that.
Rob,
Thanks for your comment. I agree with what you say — a targeted gas strike may show a specific company that consumers, when they get together, can be very powerful. But the idea of a “gas strike” as it is usually defined (and as it is defined on that Facebook post I saw) misses the mark.
Unfortunately supply and demand market rules do not apply. Supply is highest in 40 years, demand is weak. Prices rise because they are greedy, and I believe that any kind of effective boycott will simply make them raise prices to recoup the loss. You’re right about reducing consumnption of gasoline but because our communities are not organized around effective public transportation, it makes it close to impossible to do away with a car. This price gouging hurts american workers, for some of them, one hour of their work day goes to pay for the gas it takes to get them to work. I say NO PUMP HUMP DAY… Every wednesday don’t buy gas. 52 days of lost annual revenue might make them notice.
No, this has not worked in the past. It does absolutely nothing to the gas companies. They could care less which day you buy it. Unless everyone drives less over a long period of time there will be no effect whatsoever on long term gas sales/prices. And targeting a specific company is impossible because gas is a commodity, traded on the free market. The market price of a barrel of oil is the market price for everyone. Even if we lowered our gas use long term it would effect the price of oil for all oil companies equally.
So the ONLY way to effect gas companies is use less gas long term. Buy a hybrid. Carpool. Stay home.
{Nicely done|Kudos|Well Done}…
Love your site…