Are we happy to pay big oil two, three, four, five, six bucks a gallon?
I’m not!
I have had a handful of replies to previous postings and at first they were all in favor of a boycott – then I get ExxonMobil sympathizers coming here and posting about how they are only earning 10% profit. (I’ll save my profit rantings for later)
Now I am not pretending to be the expert and am not the expert. The only expertise I have is knowing that a lot of people including me don’t like paying that much for gas and feel we are being lied to – by big oil in general whether that is ExxonMobil, Bush, OPEC or some guy in Alaska that somehow won’t give us access to 200 years of oil.
So When a video like the one below, that is not me in the video and I have no idea who it is, wants to start a worldwide gas boycott – and has no luck what is that saying to big oil? This guy tried for the boycott in April and had no takers and is now trying for May 1st which is fast approaching. Look at the stats on this video – when I found it it had only 57 views! 57 people care enough to find it and watch it – come on!
I have heard from professionals in San Francisco paying $4.19 a gallon that they can’t continue to pay that price for long. I have heard from moms with compact cars only spending $37 – $40 bucks on a tank and they can’t afford that. I’ve heard from construction company owners towing massive trailers who have to put up with dishing out well over a hundred bucks to pull their crew and equipment around and none of them want to do it.
So let’s do something about it. I don’t care whose fault it is – what are we going to do about it now to make a point that enough is enough?
If we don’t boycott are we in essence telling all involved that we don’t care about the price – that we are going to put up with it? Or are we going to take a stand and boycott – not for one day – not just one brand – but the whole industry for 3 or 4 days.
Perhaps a better ‘boycott’ is that we do a national slowdown – we all get in either the HOV lane in our carpools – or that we all actually slow down to 50 mph drawing nationwide attention while drastically cutting down on gas.
As you read on another update today – I drove slower today – my own personal slowdown. In doing this I saved gas already. On Monday I will start carpooling saving even more gas (money).
Come on people – comment to your hearts content – send this message on – what are we going to do – let’s here some real ideas – ideas that have an immediate impact.
On the highway today some people joined in behind me – we drove down that road proudly at between 55 and 60 while gas guzzling monsters, compacts and even hybrids breezed on by. I’d love to keep up the pattern – let’s fill those slow lanes and HOV lanes. Even if we don’t change the world by slowing down and/or carpooling we are paying less per gallon in doing it.
People – speak up – what are you willing to do and who are you willing to tell and get involved?
For those of you who have stock in ExxonMobil or other oil companies and enjoy paying yourselves a dividend – please keep on doing what you are doing – blow by the rest of us on the freeway. For those of you who are afraid to act – don’t be all you have to do is slow down.
For those who don’t care – you will someday – we all have a day or a price when you look at the amount you are paying and just can’t believe it – for me its that I pay over 50 bucks to fill an accord – a car that used to cost max of 30 – just a couple years ago – maybe its $5, $6, or even $7 for those of you that can afford it – but you are literally burning through that money. I for one am going to burn through mine as slowly as possible.
The video below was found tonight with only 57 views – why – don’t we want to take a stand?
Tags: carpooling, Exxon, exxonmobile, gas, gas price, Gas Price Boycott, gas prices, save on gas, worldwide boycott
April 26, 2008 at 2:10 pm |
“The only expertise I have is knowing that a lot of people including me don’t like paying that much for gas and feel we are being lied to – by big oil in general whether that is ExxonMobile, Bush, OPEC or some guy in Alaska that somehow won’t give us access to 200 years of oil.”
Your honesty and direct exposition are great assets. But I happen to believe–assuming I accept your position that the current rise in prices is indeed a *problem*–that before we decide how to address a problem, we first determine what its *causes* are.
In a previous comment, I pointed out how Exxon’s profits could not account for the recent rise in gas prices. If you’re looking for a straw man to attack, you might do better with the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Aramco
But even the house of Saud cannot be (directly, though indirectly, NGOs are part of the problem) blamed for the recent spike in prices. OPEC is pumping oil full throttle; they have no more spare capacity, so it’s no longer a simple issue of a cartel setting a price level.
A possible fallacy in your thinking is to presume that some individual or group of individuals acting intentionally necessarily must lie at the cause of the spike in energy prices. What you seem to not have realized is that prices, by and large, represent an emergent order that arises due to the decisions made by every consumer participating in the economy. A related question you might want to think about is: who causes a traffic jam?
By the way, I am in no way an Exxon “sympathizer” as you (apparently) attempt to paint me. Besides their quarterly financial reports and a few other miscellaneous facts, I know hardly anything about the firm and cannot say whether or not their overall modus operandi is ethical or not. My first post was merely an effort to point out that you are barking up the wrong tree in your diatribes against Exxon.
Oh, and my solution to energy prices? I live 1 mile from my place of work. Though I have a relatively inefficient car, I fill up only once every other month.
April 27, 2008 at 12:52 am |
[...] The US was not built around expensive gas I just read a very good comment by JB and he is right. [...]