I have had quite a big response in just a few hours from a question I posed about the price to fill up your car.
One comment was that it may be time to start a nationwide boycott.
In essence I am already boycotting in that I am going to ditch my car and start carpooling on Monday. This move alone saves 100 gallons of gas each month.
If a lot of us would turn of the ignition and never get back in that old gas guzzler or just drive to the park n ride and then carpool we could really make a dent in the pokets of the oil mongers.
I don’t want to carpool…..don’t get me wrong I love the freedom of having my own car right there where ever I am and whenever I need it. But, if this is going to happen its going to have to start with me.
I am thinking of taking this to the national media and starting a boycott of ExxonMobil specifically since they are the one most benefiting from this crazy price war.
They will tell us that the prices have to be this high – don’t believe them – they are not telling us the truth! I am not going to dive into the history of this – but this same issue – boycott of Exxon Mobil was being discussed on the Internet in 2005 and 2006 when the price was approaching 2 and then 3 dollars a gallon. We have long surpassed AND STAYED OVER those figures. In many places they are now paying four dollars and are encroaching on the five dollar per gallon mark.
What do you say – please comment below – who will support me in this if I make it my person venture?
Boycott ExxonMobil only – or do we boycott the whole industry by refusing to go to work for a day or two – working from home if we can and if not risking it all to take a stand against these crooks?
Give me some thoughts as we need to act now before it goes beyond 4 bucks a gallon nationwide.
I want to keep this short but insert you own thought in conjunction with this statement. This national gas price and are current recession are being largely caused by the by oil companies. When they drive the gas price this high everything goes up. Rice, milk, mail, airfare, bread, it all goes up. Airlines are going bankrupt over this – Delta report massive losses today because of the price of fuel. We can not take this any more – and we don’t have to.
Please take a stand with me. Send me your thoughts and I will work on getting the media involved.
The goal – the price should be below 2 dollars per gallon for regular unleaded – period. ExxonMobil needs to do whatever it takes – including backing off of its 40 BILLION dollar profits.
Tags: gas prices, gas, price at the pump, boycott, boycott ExxonMobile, Exxon, Mobile, nationwide gas prices
April 24, 2008 at 11:53 pm |
I started boycotting all foreign oil a long time ago, mainly Exxon and Conoco. I have not filled up at an Exxon station in at least 6 months or more. The other guys are usually a few cents cheaper anyway. The one thing I hadn’t realized is that I need to make sure the oil products I buy at the store are not theirs either. We really do need to do this… I will try to have other join us.
April 25, 2008 at 6:28 am |
I’ve been boycotting them for years, they have a horrendous record on discriminating against the LGBT community. The unconscionable profits they are making is just one more reason to not by gas from them and to tell others to (not) do the same. EVIL company.
April 25, 2008 at 7:47 am |
This sounds good to me. I started buying gas only from “true” American companies about 2 months ago. Some of them are BP, Sunoco, Pilot, and Hess. If you want more information about American OIl companies, they are listed on the Dept. Of Energy website. No more of my gas money is going overseas. The real problem in this country is that no one wants to stick together. We need to change that. Good luck with you quest . I will do all I can to put out the word.
April 25, 2008 at 9:29 am |
Hey, I own stock in that company. Why would I want to boycott it? Price is part of living in a free market. Cry all you want but the laws of supply and demand are at work. Do people realize that gas in Europe is 6.60/gallon? Even 4.00/gallon is a bargain. Time to wakeup and smell the diesel.
April 25, 2008 at 9:54 am |
Do you realize Marcus, that they made 40 billion in profit last year?!!
April 25, 2008 at 11:09 am |
If we really want to make a change…for a straight one or two days boycott buying gas from Exxon Mobil !!!! Go to Sunocom, or Hess or somewhere else. All it takes is for the snowball to start rolling and if we do it correctly the snowball will grow and gain speed. All these record profits…yet the reason prices are high is because the refrineries are breaking down, or aren’t to capacity……..well then where are all the profits going……..oh right to Dubai !!!!!
April 25, 2008 at 11:16 am |
[...] cougarmark Just another WordPress.com weblog « Is it time to boycott ExxonMobile? [...]
April 25, 2008 at 2:45 pm |
I think the entire United States should take 1 day a week off from driving, and 1 day a week off from buying milk. And dont stop until we get results.
April 25, 2008 at 3:13 pm |
I hear on CNN last night that another reason for the insane gas prices is the deterioration of the Dollar, due to the almost constant printing of money by the Fed. In the last year, the price of gasoline for the dollar has gone up over 300% while it has only gone up about 90% for the euro. It’s just crazy!!!!
April 25, 2008 at 9:17 pm |
“…or do we boycott the whole industry by refusing to go to work for a day or two – working from home if we can and if not risking it all to take a stand against these crooks?”
Har har, the irony of someone not understanding supply and demand following that law nonetheless. The market signal of higher prices is *precisely* one that should drive down consumption so that demand = supply.
“Delta report massive losses today because of the price of fuel.”
How’s Southwest doing?
“The goal – the price should be below 2 dollars per gallon for regular unleaded – period. ExxonMobile needs to do whatever it takes – including backing off of its 40 BILLION dollar profits.”
Since I have a habit of actually doing the math, I’m going to share my wisdom with you. Exxon made 40 billion net profit from 400 billion revenue, or 10%. Even if Exxon were fully vertically integrated and was responsible for all facets of gasoline production (crude oil exploration, extracting, refining, transport, marketing, etc. etc.), that would shave off just 10% of the pre-tax gasoline price of ~$3.50/gallon (throwing a generous amount of diesel into the average mix as well). Yippee, you get a $0.35 refund! But that doesn’t go far in explaining why gasoline has risen from $1/gallon to almost $4/gallon in several years, does it? Oh cougarmark, I think I hear someone calling: it’s cognitive dissonance!
April 27, 2008 at 2:05 pm |
All gas companies get their gas from essentially the same place, and even share supply between them, so switching suppliers doesn’t do a thing. (Read here http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp for details). Not using gas for a day or even a week does nothing either, because you’ll just make it up when you DO start using gas again!
Don’t sign an online petition, boycott any particular station or complain to your congressperson. If you really want to make a difference, start carpooling permanently. Or better yet, start walking or biking to work, taking public transportation, or working from home.
For the price to go down, supply has to go up and demand has to decrease. It’s simple economics.
August 16, 2008 at 1:54 am |
Media news people and politicians alike, are both guilty of telling just enough of the truth to the American public to distort it to further their agendas.
A good example of this is the ongoing fuselade directed at oil companies, all the while tearing them down for what are alleged to be record braking profits.
Well, I did a bit of research into pre-tax profits for a lot of companies. Except for Boeing, their pretax profits never dropped below 11% with companies like Pepsi-co and Coca-Cola reporting pretax profits in excess of 20%! Boeing was at 9.5% Verizon reported profits of 16.2%, GE reported pretax earnings of 15.1%.
By contrast, the average pretax profit for the oil industry is an underwhelming 8%!
In spite of all those record breaking sales volumes, those companies average pretax margins are 2 points below pretax margins considered acceptable by investors and CFO’s
There isn’t court of law in this Country that doesn’t require us to take an oath to “Tell the truth, the whole truth. . . ” not just that portion that supports our position.
So how do they get away with it? How do the politicians and news people continue to misrepresent the profits of the oil companies and pull the wool over the eyes of the American public?
Before he died, Kurt Vonnegut was quoted as having accused the American people of being stupid. I can’t say for sure if he is right or not.
However, the ease with which I was able to uncover the real facts on profits, suggests that Americans have gotten very lazy.
These companies are all publicly traded. As such, they are required by law to post their financials for all to see.
Please!! Don’t believe a word I’ve written! Don’t take it on faith.
Instead, go look up pre-tax profit margins yourself.
Then you decide.
I personally can’t stand Exxon. My contempt for them existed before the Valdez accident. It increased dramatically when I saw them get away with absurdly low punitive damages after ruining the ecomomies and the ecology of fishing villages up and down the Alaskan coast.
I believe there are many valid reasons for being contemptuous of Exxon-Mobile and to justify boycotting them.
High margins of profit, however, are not among them.