Gas Price Stupidity returns

In this morning's spam filter was this little gem. I think it came from someone I actually know:

THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' GAS FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET GAS BACK DOWN TO $1.30 PER GALLON.

This was sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this summer, take time to read this please.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.
This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May!
It's worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!

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.
The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew 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.
BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can Really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $2.00 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $3.08 at Arco and Costco for regular unleaded in Salem, Oregon and climbing every week.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to 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 we hit 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. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers .
If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all!

(If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am . so trust me on this one.

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $2.00 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

Here we go again. We've been spared this nonsense for the last four years thanks to the Democrats that took over Congress -- four years ago! What a coincidence! -- and put the country into a recession that seriously impacted the demand side of the Supply / Demand equation. But with the sea change that began with last November's elections, the economy is recovering* and we will soon see $5 per gallon gasoline, not to mention some serious inflation as the billions and billions of newly-printed money begins to circulate in the economy.

As is usual for stupid, clueless people who unthinkingly forward this kind of stuff to everyone in their address books, there were about a bazillion email addresses of all of their friends exposed in the clear.

So, I spammed 'em all! HA HA!! With this:

Wow, you people really don't understand economics, do you?

"There are a thousand people hacking at the branches of evil to one who is getting at the root." -- Henry David Thoreau

Gas prices obey a very fundamental, very well-understood Law of Economics called "Supply and Demand." The Market determines the price, not one or two companies.

Gas prices fell a couple of years ago because demand fell. Demand fell because we were in a recession. Nothing has happened to change the supply side of the equation; therefore, as we recover from the recession and demand increases again, prices will go up.

If you want to affect gas prices, you will have to increase supply. This means, among other things:

* More drilling, preferably here on US soil. We have lots of crude oil in this country; enough to make a significant impact on prices -- if only the oil companies were allowed to go get it.

* More refineries. There hasn't been a new refinery built in the US since 1976, mostly thanks to our "friends" in the environmentalist movement. It has been their dream, forever, to see $5 a gallon gasoline in this country. They're finally going to get it this summer.

These things above, mean, in turn:

* Stop voting for politicians who are in the environmental movement's pockets. This means pretty much all Democrats (don't EVER vote for a Democrat) but there are plenty of Republicans around who are just as bad. Newt Gingrigh, for instance. Yes, he's an environmentalist. Bet you didn't know that!

The prices we're seeing and about to see have been 40+ years in the making, dating back to the first Earth Day in 1970. We can't turn them around in a year, but we can turn them around by continuing to do what voters did last November: elect Tea Party candidates. Defeat ANY politician who supports any part of the Global Warming agenda. Defeat ANY politician who opposes drilling & extracting our own energy resources. Defeat ANY politician who has ever worked to block getting a new refinery or nuclear power plant built. These people hate this country, and aim to destroy it. $5 a gallon gas has been their goal all along, and if you keep voting for them, you'll keep getting what we've been getting.

Now I await the angry replies. We still have snow on the ground here in the Colorado Rockies, but I won't even have to turn on the furnace! Just open my inbox...

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* I know, I know, the economy isn't really recovering until you have a job. But using the official definition of "recovery," it technically is in a recovery. It's just the weakest, most anemic recovery any economist has ever seen.