Please everyone who is sick of the high gas prices, be part of the no gas day on July 4th! Time to act now!!?

Question

This is to a nationwide boycott of gas...the price could be over $5 next week and the govenment is doing nothing! Time to stop complaining and do something about it...spread the word, tell your friends, everyone is solidified on this....tell them we have had enough!!! Make fliers, this is getting out of hand and we need to show that we are done with these crazy prices! We can do this! Show what we can do.

Answer 1

And exactly what is this supposed to accomplish?  Gasoline is a commodity. This means that all of the oil companies have to compete with each other on price.  (There is no real difference between similar grades of gasoline sold by different companies.)

The people selling you your gasoline are doing so at the lowest price they can afford and still make a profit.  (The percentage of profit on a gallon of gas for the oil companies is about 8%.  What people don't realize is that oil companies make most of thier profits on non-gasoline products such as plastics and chemicals.

What this means is that the oil company makes 32 cents on a 4 dollar gallon of gas. (Actually this is less once you subtract the gasoline taxes from the selling price.)

If you reduce the profit the oil companies amke then it will no longer make economic sense for them to remain in the gasoline business as they could invest the money somewhere else and make a better profit.  (This is the primary reason why price controls create shortages.)

If you want to do something about gasoline prices - you need to look at increasing supply.  This means new oil wells in the US and more refineries.  (Do you really expect this to happen with the Democrats controlling Congress?)

Answer 2

Boycotts for essentials like gas won't work because after July 4th, people will just all get their gas the next day and result in a busier than normal July 5th.  But we do need to hold our representatives responsible for not doing anything about this.

Answer 3

What is the logic behind the pleas there should be no price hike, if the international price of crude oil is going up astronomically. There is a lot of politics in pricing the oil. Why all the political parties who oppose the hike do some thing to stop the international price.