> This message was received and forwarded - please forward it!
Please don't. It's stupid.
> Anytime we can stick it to them it's a good day. Last year on April
> 30,1999, a gas out was staged across Canada and the U.S. to
> bring the price of gas down, and it worked.
Yeah, it worked real well, not.
> It's time to do
> something about it again.This time, lets make it
> for three days instead of just one. The oil cartel decided to slow
> production to drive up gasoline prices. Lets see how many
> Canadian\American people we can get to ban together for a three
> day period in April, NOT TO BUY ANY GASOLINE, during those
> three days. LETS HAVE A GAS OUT. Do not buy any
> gasoline from APRIL 7, 2000, THROUGH APRIL 9, 2000.
You see, the problem with this "GAS OUT" and why it doesn't (and didn't
work before) is illustrated best in the following lines of the email:
> Buy what
> you need before the dates listed above, or after, but try not to buy
> any during the GAS OUT.
If there was really some good way to stop using gasoline, we could have
some say in the prices. However, every person that runs a gas station
realizes that people will still consume gasoline during the "GAS OUT"
period. The gas that they would have sold during the slumped period will
be bought before and after said period. Hence, people that are "civic-
minded" and do their obligation to not buy gasoline during the "GAS OUT"
period still consume the gas -- before or after.
Most likely, the gas station owners will find out about this revolt if it
is to be widespread enough to theoretically make a difference. They will
raise their prices before and after the "GAS OUT" since they know they
have a captive audience and many people will be topping off their tanks
within a 3-5 day period. In addition, the gas prices will drop during the
"GAS OUT" time. The people that are civic minded get burned by paying
more for the expensive gas. This whole scenario gives gas retailers a
reason to raise the price before and after the "GAS OUT" -- and they'll
leave it at a higher rate afterwards. (We all know that they'll raise
prices for any reason, but won't lower them after that reason goes away.)
This leads me to believe that ploys like this "GAS OUT" are functions of
gas companies. Since people won't be buying gas for three days, they'll
have a smaller window (2-3 days before the "GAS OUT" for a three day gas
out, compared to a window of however often you fill up your car minus one
day for a single day "GAS OUT") to fill up their vehicles to get them
through the tree-day gas fasting. This lets the gas stations know exactly
when they should raise their prices (before and after), and then to lower
them back to normal during the "GAS OUT" -- to give people incentive not
to participate in gas-outs because they're bad publicity. (They really
don't want to remind people they're paying almost 50% more for a gallon of
gas than they did a year ago.)
Lesson of the day: Don't be civic-minded. It's more expensive.
- OR -
Lesson of the day: If someone asks you to forward something to as many
people as possible -- it's probably not true or good.
> If you want to help, just sendthis to
> everyone you know and ask them to do the same.We brought the
> prices down once before, and we can do it again!
Please don't forward this. I've got it three times now and it's a damn
stupid idea. Instead of putting your time and energy into crap like this,
try putting it towards something that will actually decrease the necessity
of fossil fuels.
// chris
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Chris Tobkin [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Java and Web Services - Academic and Distributed Computing Services - UMN
Shep. Labs 190 Minneapolis, MN 55455
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"The IRS cannot perform some of the basic accounting tasks that it
requires of the American public." - General Accounting Office
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