May 15th: Pass on Gas

[DracoFelis]

Originally Posted by Ryland

they are doing what a buissness is ment to do, making money, oil compenys are not running a charity, they didn't go in to the industry out of the kindness of their hearts, if they don't do everything they can to make a profit then they are violating the first law of buissness, "make as much money as possible for your share holders" if you don't do that as a buissness you have failed.

That's one theory about how business should work. But it's a theory that has some real problems for ethics, society, and even for the long term health of the company itself.

I agree that businesses aren't in it for charity (unless the business is a charity or a not-for-profit), but neither do they need to try to make the biggest profit at any costs. Just look at the history of Enron (even the technically legal stunts they did), to see where "profits at any cost" lead.

Business is (or at least should be) always a balancing act between making profits and keeping your ethics. And good ethics (not to mention avoiding "ticking off your customers") can also be good for the long term health of the company (just look at how well Google is doing, in part due to the fact that they apparently do draw a line as to how far they will go). But it's not just about "profits at any cost". Profits yes (and there is nothing wrong with a business making profits). But profits at any cost, no.

[kickflipjr]

Word about this must out. Even my friend said something about it. Yeah it really wont work.


Why one-day gasoline 'boycott' won't work
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18492185/

[caprice]

I got this in a bulletin in myspace. In reply, I posted why this wouldn't work. unfortunatly myspace deletes bulletins after 10 days, and I lost what I made.

[Shining Arcanine]

What might work to lower fuel prices is if President Bush would authorize drilling in ANWAR, drilling off the coast of Florida and the creation of new oil refineries through an executive order in an attempt to cut off the flow of cash to terrorists in the Middle East by removing obstacles oil companies face in increasing US domestic oil and fuel production. It would be killing two birds with one stone, but I do not think that he will do it.

[slurp812]

Originally Posted by Matt Timion

this is exactly it... a one day boycott doesn't change a thing, because the fuel will be purchased either before or after the boycott day...

now, get people to not drive their cars for a month and that will send a real message. I'd be willing to pick up my kid every day in my bicycle in order to make a statement.

The oil industry wouldn't even notice, AT ALL! A gas station already bought the gasoline, and he would wonder Hmm, why I am not selling today? Then the next day (or the previous day) it would make up for it. His monthly sales would be the same, so he would buy the same amount for june, as he did for may.

[rvanengen]

Originally Posted by slurp812

The oil industry wouldn't even notice, AT ALL! A gas station already bought the gasoline, and he would wonder Hmm, why I am not selling today? Then the next day (or the previous day) it would make up for it. His monthly sales would be the same, so he would buy the same amount for june, as he did for may.

Only way as a temporary/protest measure that I can see it would be noticed, is if the boycott were long enough for gas stations to cancel regular orders, causing the distributors to see a rise in on-hand stocks...perhaps even passing on pipeline/barge deliveries. Anything less is meaningless noise.

How about everyone just use less fuel? :-)

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Originally Posted by rvanengen

How about everyone just use less fuel? :-)

But that may actually work!

[GasSavers_James]

It would be a lot of work, but it would be neat to know how much gasoline all of the gassavers members have saved vs epa numbers for their vehicles. I bet we save a lot of gasoline per year...and each month many of us do better and better! Maybe still not good enough, but better, and we should try and get the word out.

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by James

It would be a lot of work, but it would be neat to know how much gasoline all of the gassavers members have saved vs epa numbers for their vehicles. I bet we save a lot of gasoline per year...and each month many of us do better and better! Maybe still not good enough, but better, and we should try and get the word out.

You know, that's probably not too hard at all... I think a simple database query can grab all the necessary info quite easily in one pass (EPA# - actual# - gallons used). Then interpret that data - simply calculate how many miles we would have gotten following the EPA estimate and compare to the actual mileage/gallons used.

It would be an interesting stat for the site - how many gallons/liters we haven't bought

[Bill in Houston]

Originally Posted by theclencher

Why does everything these days have a WAR in it?

ANWR reserves are but a drop in the bucket. If we got in there and grabbed it all, it would hardly have any noticeable effect.

We should save the ANWR until we really really need it.