Guest Author - William Charles Vetter

I have gotten several emails recently concerning high gas prices. Several chain email writers have come up with what they think are innovative ways to force oil companies to lower gas prices. The first one that I received made the rounds about a year and a half ago. What the writer proposed is that everyone not buy gas on a certain day, the writer seemed convinced that doing this would send a shock through the entire petroleum industry, forcing oil companies to lower oil prices at once. The second one that I received took this one step further and postulated; What if we all refused to buy oil from one company in particular, this would certainly force that oil company to lower their prices and inorder to compete the other oil companies would soon follow suit. The writer seemed convinced that oil would be back at $2.00 a gallon within a month or two and the entire world would be right again. Problem solved for everyone, now wouldn't that be an easy way to lower prices?

Would Skipping A Day At The Gas Pump Work
If you skipped buying gas on say, July 15 for instance, like most people you would probably fill up either the day before or the day after. Since corporations work based on quarterly sales figures, a day totally devoid of sales would not even register a blip on their computers. They would not even know that any thing strange had happened.

What about Boycottining An Entire Company?The second more elaborate scheme obviously came about because the first one was so pathetic and had no hope of having any kind of impact at all. Method 2 wouldn't work either because if we all boycotted company A for instance, company A would and could sell to ompany B and to company C and to oompany D, etc. There is no law that says that if an oil company refines oil, they have to sell it at the company store. The email's author also fails to point out that even if their scheme were successful and their victim went out of business, how would removing a competing oil company lower gas prices? Instead he confuses us by explaining how geometric multiplication works; you send to ten people those people send to ten people, etc, ect...

Will Chain Emails Ever Come Up With a Successful Scheme?
No, oil companies do not set oil or gas prices. If 50% of the price of gas is directly related to the price of crude oil, then gas prices can not miraculously drop without a drop in oil prices. No company is going to be able to sell a product for less than it costs to produce it and market it. Even if it were possible to get 100% of the people to cooperate, which clearly, is not possible.

So What Will Work To Lower Gas Prices?
Gas prices will come down when the supply of oil again exceeds the demand. So buy less, drive a more efficient car, ride a bike or a skateboard. You can carpool, move closer to where you work or work closer to where you live, that's what I did. I use less than 1/3 of the amount of fuel that I was using last year, plus I get someone to pay for it. So, for me its not just economics, I can easily afford $6 per gallon gas, its just the satisfaction of being able to keep oil companies from getting my money that gets me going...