Off Topic but interesting read

GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work. This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It's worth your consideration.

Join the resistance!!!!

I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent,
united action.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May!
The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. 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 market place. 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 wimp 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 30 people. If each of us 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 group 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. That's all! If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people....

Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am. So trust me on this one. How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail 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. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

__________________

O, how nice. Exxon and Mobil, huh? How about Citgo instead - just to kill two birds with one stone.

O Jeez...

Any bottles of smoke for sale ?

Methinks your country still has plenty of black stuff under the ground , but why get it out now ? that is after all what certain middle eastern place are for . The longer the oil stays where it is , the more it will be worth when lifted .
You might have to come to accept that your motor fuel will cost upwards of $7-00 a gallon - just like it does in most of Europe .

You watch , the minute the gauge drops , people will fill up . If you tell people not to consume electricity on a certain day , they won't , why ? because they can't easily store it . But gasoline , what sort of a big deal is it anyway , if not today , then tomorrow , why ? the car has a reservoir , so one day or the next is hardly a big deal .

I challenge you to reduce the price of water by not using it on a certain day - if you succeed , try motor fuel .

Great idea.[/sarcasm] Run up the demand at all the other stations, forcing them to increase their prices to meet the demand, enabling Exon/Mobile to sell their excess suplies to the other stations at an increased price. Pure Genius. NOT!


http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

There are two gasoline retailers in town, one Exxon/Mobil, one Shell. On Monday everybody in town stops buying gas from Exxon/Mobil and goes to Shell. Tuesday morning, two tankers arrive to refill the retailers tanks, one from Shell, the other from Exxon/Mobil. The Shell tanker dumps his entire load, but the retailer needs more. The Exxon/Mobil tanker has plenty of extra gas because his retailer hasn't been selling any. What's to stop the Shell retailer from topping off his tank from the surplus gas in the Exxon/Mobil truck?

Sure........
Don't think so.
Gas & oil consumption is much more complex then where you go to fill up your gas tank......

I think it's funny how the original Idea uses the number 300 million.
That is one estimate of the number of people who have access to the Internet.
There isn't even half that many people in the U.S. that drive cars, let alone buy gas.

I'm always breaking the chain on those kinds of Emails.
Yep, time and again bad luck has been cursed upon me for not forwarding them to 10 friends.

Perhaps the Coca Cola executive has a short sale on Exxon stock coming up?

The problem is that the oil busneiss is not as competitive as it seems when standing on a street corner with BP (aka British Petrolum), Mobil, Sunoco, & Speedway at each corner. They all share the distrubution networks all the way back to the wells. The difference in pump prices comes from the retailers trying to suck in more customers then the guy across the street so they can sell them more junk food & ciggarettes.

Coca-Cola Executive?

Next as a response to high soft drink prices Exxon executive will offer not to buy Coca Cola products hoping all brands will lower prices ....

I think this is a good reason why people should resist posting off topic stuff.

Further OT...

SD_Scott said:

Google PEAK OIL

Click to expand...

I'm not so concerned. 100+ years ago Whale Oil was the predominant source of lubricants & lighting. Just about the time we wiped out the sperm whales, along came petroleum. The replacement for petroleum is here, and has been for 50 years. All we need is the political will to get back into making it happen.

Nuclear, Coal, Wind, & Solar has the capability to supply our energy needs almost indefinitely. The soon we make the transition the better. If we do it sooner, then there will be more then enough petroleum for lubricants & synthetic materials well into the foreseeable future.

Bob,

Shifting purchases from one brand to another DOES NOT decrease the economic demand for gasoline, so the price will not be affected at all by this ignorant tactic.

You are really off-the-wall on this one. I suggest a course in Economics 101. The price of gasoline is equal to the point where the Supply Curve crosses the Demand Curve, skewed upwards by the amount of government taxes on gasoline (averaging about 42 cents per gallon in most of the US).

There are only three things that can possibly lower the cost of gasoline: (1)Decreased long-term demand from the users, (2)Increased supply, or (3)decreased taxes.

We all know numbers 2 and 3 are not going to happen. The supply is getting less each day, and no government entity is going to give up money. Now, what could possibly decrease demand for gasoline?

Suggestions to decrease demand for gasoline:

A. Let loose a deadly virus, such as the avian flu, that wipes out 30% of the population. Now that might reduce the demand for gasoline when people stop traveling out of fear of exposure.

B. Engage in a vicious war with another country to gain better control of gasoline supplies, and coincidently that kills thousands of young men and women, and thus lowering the birth rate and the future demand for gasoline.

C. Close our borders to illegal immigrants (and thus reduce the number of gasoline users).

D. Pass laws that control the maximum (and minimum) ages at which drivers can no longer drive legally.

E. Set up government programs to encourage the manufacture of alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles.

F. Raise the price to discourage casual consumption.

Oh, wait, we are doing all of the above already.

And yet...

...every quarter (lately) we hear, yet again, that Exxon has had yet another new high in profits!

Have they come up with a better way to process oil that leads to greater profits? I don't think so.

Are they making better decisions in the way that they do business that leads to greater profits? That is, are they making decisions that reduce their own overhead, thus increasing the profits? I don't think so.

When a crisis of any kind happens, political or natural, the price of gas jumps immediately in anticipation of the increased cost per barrel. And yet, the oil already in process was purchased at the earlier price.

Does the price of fuel go down when the crisis is over? No. The excuse is that the fuel in process was purchased at the higher price caused by the crisis, and therefore, the prices must remain higher to recover those costs until the cheaper oil enters the process.

They're having it both ways.

And, in addition to that, do you see ANY oil company trying to win customers away from another oil company by competitive pricing? No.

According to Adam Smith, the capitalist system is supposed to be based on a few basic tenets...

1. Prices will be what the market can bear.
2. Competition will tend to keep prices low.
3. Prices are subject to the relationship between Supply and Demand.

There are others, but those are the big ones.

Item-1 favors business and not the consumers.
Item-2 favors the consumers and not business.
Item-3 is supposed to be the balancing factor.

According to dear old Adam, businesses are supposed to be vying against each other for consumers.

What is the difference between OPEC and the few remaining oil companies? Not a damned thing!

What is the difference between an absolute monopoly and several businesses acting in collusion? Not a damned thing!

From the consumer's point of view there is virtually no difference between one oil company and another... except, perhaps, for the particular "Engine Cleaning Additive" that they advertise.

An interesting point to note... additives are added before the fuel is delivered for distibution. In many cases, the fuel, with the additive(s), are sold to a general distributor. That distributor will sell that fuel to any buyer. That means, you could just as well get Shell gas, with Techron, at a Union station. I see it happen in my neighborhood all the time.

About the only thing you can almost count on is the octane... when gas is delivered to a particular tank it is supposed to be within a point, or two, of the specified level, or better. Except on rare occasions, you won't see 97-Octane showing up in an 86-Octane tank. But you should never see 86-Octane showing up in a 97-Octane tank.

By the way, the higher the octane number, the less tendency there is for the fuel to pre-ignite ("knock"). The octane-rating for fuel is a number indicating the amount of Octane (C₈H₁₈) relative to the amount of Heptane (C₇H₁₆). The higher the Octane rating the greater the amount of Octane. An Octane number of 100 indicates that all of the fuel is supposed to be Octane, with no Heptane, or lesser 'tanes. It all boils down to how much effort is put into "boiling down", or "cracking", the fuel.

But I digress... back to the subject...

With respect to the cost of fuel, what is happening is that Item-2, "competition", has been eliminated by the oil companies, through collsion, which effectively nullifies the balancing affect of Item-3.

There was a time, in our (U.S.) history, when we delt with such devious endevours. Teddy Roosevelt knew a "trust" or "monopoly" when he saw it. The whole reason that Teddy went about "trust-busting" was that he recognized that the US could not allow itself to be held hostage to the whims of a particular business interest, and especially the whims of the owner(s) of that particular business. He could not allow the country to be brought to its knees because one company (or cartel) had total control of a particular, critical, commodity!

Repeating myself, what is the difference between an absolute monopoly and several businesses acting in collusion? Not a damned thing!

The oil companies have us by the short-hairs because the political aspect is being essentially nullified.

This country, this grand idea, is supposed to be based on the idea of "We, the people...". It has been changed to, and is currently being promoted as... "We, the CORPORATIONS...". Actually, it has been for quite a while (almost 100-years!).

There was time when Corporations had to petition for their continued existence! They had to prove that they were a benefit to the local economy, the local social structure, and society on the whole. If not, they lost their charter and ceased to exist and operate.

That changed at the turn of the 19^th Century.

At that point, "We, the people", lost our way. Instead of controlling our fate, we are now leaving our fates to the whims of the Corporations. Having done so, we should expect nothing less than servitude and slavery.

So... should something be done? Can we do anything?

I say YES! Yes we can!

I don't believe that we can do it by depriving one arm of the octopus of gains while the remaining arms continue to gain. All arms belong to the same octopus, and the octopus is fed, in any case.

What we need to do is have a government that returns to the idea that this country is based on "We, the people...", NOT "We, the CORPORATIONS...".

You see, capitalism works only if ALL 3 of the items are fairly played!

And if you are a reasonably fair student of history and economics, you might even see that Communism could be a viable method... if played fairly and rightly. The Russians most certainly did NOT play the Communism game fairly and rightly. The concepts are sound... at least in terms of the masses.

Now... if you can consider the concepts without being "buzz-word" sensitive (which means, if you can truely understand the fundamental concepts behind Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism), I would love to hear your thoughts.

I've always had this feeling that there is a scheme that employs the best of both methods, capitalism and communism, to produce THE best system.

Be aware,...
...the Western perception of Communism is one of total suppression... that is not what "ideal" Communism is about.
...the Western perception of Socialism is one of a total "giving away of the store"... that is NOT what "ideal" Socialism is about.

I've always had a feeling that true Socialism, which tends to combine the BEST of Capitalism and the best of Communism, is the better method... maybe there is one better than that.

We are ALL in the game, and we are ALL contributing to, and using, the system. Oh yeah, even the rich Capitalists are "using" the system. What's the difference?

I'm really curious as to the responses that will come from this.

Please, come from an informed point of view.

Is our system supposed to be one of "take", without a price for being able to do so?

Terry,

Any person here is free to set up his own gas company, if he thinks he can supply gas at a better price. I don;t see any lines forming....

The only way a monopoly can exist (I admit that gasolline is a monopoly business right now)is if there are barriers to entry into the business. I see substantial barriers: political instability in the countries where the major production is located, wars, riots, and sabotage of equipment and wells. Who would want to take on the risk of supplying a commodity that could be cut off at any time? THe rewards of capitalism are proportional to the risks taken. The oil producers are taking major risks right now, and into the forseeable future. What about the refiners? Increasing environmental clean-up problems, increasing taxes, regulations, fines, and labor problems.

So go ahead, Terry. Start your own company and sell us gas at a mere $2 per gallon.