What should we do about rising gas prices?

Question

The media made a lot of noise about boycots when the prices started going up. Well, that's just stupid. Can you say, cut off your nose to spite your face?

Here's a thought, though. Anyone heard of something similar?

How about a rolling boycott? Instead of just not buying gas, how about we organize and pick a corporation to boycott for a month? Exxon-Mobil one month, BP the next, etc. Come on econ-minds. What would be the effect of that.

Not saying it would work, but I'm curious, and I want to keep the conversation going.

Answer 1

To not buy gasoline from a particular brand station will not affect the big oil companies or the prices.    It just means the attendants at those stations will have more time to clean the restrooms,    a wonderful suggestion for some.  

The fuel trucks don't always go to that same brand plant to get fuel,  they go where they are instructed to.   There may not even be a distribution plant for many brands in an area.    So,  it is totally possible that you are buying Valero fuel at a Sinclair station,   Exxon fuel at a Shell station,   etc.     No matter what brand station gasoline you buy,   it may even all come from the same place.  

To help lower prices,   first conserve.   Reducing demand means there is more fuel available,   so prices can fall as retailers seek to bring customers back to their driveways.     Second,   reward those who offer the lowest prices in your area with your business.    Other retailers will then lower their's to draw the business back.

Answer 2

I'll tell you as a family of 3 last year $1500 seems nice right now, but we need to realize this recession is just a way for the government to distract us from the real issue. That money is being given so that we go buy things. Material items that really have no value if you ask me. The government assumes if we put money back into the business market then the businesses can begin paying more money to the trucking and delivery companies that can't even afford to deliver due to the high gas prices. The news says inflation shouldn't worry us, but it should. We are hanging on to these current day prices by a thread. Not only will the money be put back in circulation for gas needs and the high demand for it in this country, the businesses will be to profit and stay alive as well. Now in theory that will hopefully help some of the cities in this nation that are suffering the loss of losing a job due to a non-profitable America we are becoming. In reality, its a short term bandaid to keep costs down. The only way to fix this country is to clean it up. Oil is dirty and costly, and a handful of the rich in this country who have their hands in oil, or get paid off by those hands keep us in a war to protect what continues to make us the people tired, angry, and poor. We say America is so wonderful, and democracy is the way to go, but where has it gotten us? What makes democracy bad is what makes every other governmental institution bad. Eventually someone or a group of people get to much power. In our case, the big corportations have become, "we the people," of our constitution. We need to demand America to stop a war to protect oil. There is no choice not only as a nation but as a world to find a different solution. The earth is being drained and we're gonna go with it. We can get to the moon but we can't figure out how to get a car to run on sun or water, we should have a way to get vehicles to run off almost anything. America should have an electric train system like much else of the world. How much cheaper would it be to get goods from one side of the country to the other. It won't be cheap to clean this country up, but we have to do it for the future of this country. Isn't it patriotic to want your country to be better and for the future Americans to look back and say, "Thank god they got it together." Or would you rather just sit back and let your future generations be just as poor and uneducated as many of the nations in this world already are? That will happen if we continue things the way they are in this corrupt America.

Answer 3

Just stay home and dont buy ANYTHIING!!  When the eonomy comes to a standstill, that will wake them up!!  Or maybe we should have gas stamps, kinda like food stamps for those who cant swing the prices!!

Answer 4

That's what I have been saying for some time now, if we boycott one oil company for 1 month, it will work because they will have to lower there prices to make room for the inventory coming in,Lets say company A is selling gas and company B is not, then company B will lower there price to beat company A price, then there are price wars between company A and B...Lets take it one step more, not only don't buy gas but don't buy anything from a gas station......

Answer 5

i think we should strike but i know it's never gonna happen but it's a idea