Supply and Demand, or, Get a Bike

It concerns me that I'm still getting emails encouraging gas boycotts. You know, "don't get gas on Tuesdays," or don't go to certain gas stations. "That'll teach 'em a lesson, and drive down prices!"

Ridiculous. This is a simple case of supply and demand. Demand is too high, AND supply is too low. Try ditching your SUV, or riding a bike. Decrease your demand, for starters. And believe me, that's just for starters. Start thinking long-term. It's not like supply is going to magically increase. Geez.

Here is the latest email going around. There are about, oh, a JILLION things wrong with this essay.

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 consideration.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.Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certainday" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because theyknew 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.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 usto 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 marketplace..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 wehit 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. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTILTHEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.