| This is the new law | |
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Mikel Rider - Student  |
Well no not really but read it anyway... May 19th is national gas boycott day. With gas prices on the rise, something must be done to send a message to the gas companies. If no one in America buys gas on the 19th the gas companies will lose an estimated $45 MILLION dollars! If you're not happy with paying over $2.00/gallon please do not buy gas on May 19th. Please re-post this so that it will be able to reach as many people across the country as possible. _______________ Using no way as way. Having no limitation as limitation. |
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Gradius - Ex-Student 
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Okay you non-Americans need to think of it as in terms of currency. WE DO NOT HAVE IT CHEAP! Maybe cheaper than you because our currency is worth more in your country. But here, $10 a day for gass is a lot of money to some people. $10 a day turns into $70 a week, then that goes to about $280 a month, and that comes to $3,360 a year! Most Americans don't make more than $20,000 a year! We pay too much for gas. And by the way, Americans aren't the only ones using up all the fuel. Most of that fuel's getting burned up in airplanes and ocean liners. So think twice before saying we have it easy and we burn up most of the resources and such. We may be part of the problem but we're not the whole problem. _______________ - Proud padawan of Kueller. - We really are at the beginning of it all. The trick, of course, is to make sure we never find the end. - Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything - <gen-e-sis-happy> Liek, you can train, liek, a n00b, but he'll just be a trained n00b... --> Wise words! - "daer SOE me likes your a company i am having your some money for letting me do stuff cos mes the best amd i do it all meself" - Slider |
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Menaxia - Student 
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Hearing Americans moan abvout petrol prices makes me laugh. You pay nothing for it over there and consume 75% of the world's production of oil products!!! 80p per litre over here. Beat that. _______________ This is not the place to look for me |
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Smilykrazy - Retired 
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omg its the 19th and i need gas!! YIKES!!  I got a flyer at my church about this! LOL _______________ RIP MOM 06/29/58-07/31/08 Married to Koyi Donita 4/30/11 |
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Gradius - Ex-Student 
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Buzz I don't think it's going to work, in fact I almost know it won't. I was just pointing out why.  _______________ - Proud padawan of Kueller. - We really are at the beginning of it all. The trick, of course, is to make sure we never find the end. - Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything - <gen-e-sis-happy> Liek, you can train, liek, a n00b, but he'll just be a trained n00b... --> Wise words! - "daer SOE me likes your a company i am having your some money for letting me do stuff cos mes the best amd i do it all meself" - Slider |
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Mikel Rider - Student 
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Buzz puts far to much faith in my intelligents. _______________ Using no way as way. Having no limitation as limitation. |
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Buzz - Student 
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Actually Mikel, someone smarter than you did not come up with it. One day boycotts don't work. _______________ When you are going through Hell, keep going. -Sir Winston Churchill. Those who seek power and control of others, no matter the level, no matter the intentions, should never be given it. |
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Mikel Rider - Student
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Dang, you guys went crazy with this. I was jsut passin it on. I dunno if it will work or not, but I am sure someone much smarter than me came up with it, and they think it will do some good, so I ain't buyin gas tomorrow, thats all I got to say. Do it or don't, no more arguing weither or not it will work, in or out, no reasion needed. _______________ Using no way as way. Having no limitation as limitation. This comment was edited by Mikel Rider on May 19 2004 02:05am. |
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Buzz - Student
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Gradius it doesn't work and won't work. _______________ When you are going through Hell, keep going. -Sir Winston Churchill. Those who seek power and control of others, no matter the level, no matter the intentions, should never be given it. |
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Gradius - Ex-Student
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Well I don't think the whole point is to buy extra gas the day before or the day after. The whole idea is just for everyone to buy gas normally, and then tomorrow just don't, so that way all that extra gas is spared and the prices go down for a short period of time. Maybe all the crap about oil companies going bankrupt is a little exagerated I admit, but still hundreds upon hundreds of gas stations WOULD. Maybe not the companies who hold the station's name, but the actual stations themselves (the one's that are privately owned) would indeed go bankrupt because they only make about 2 cents off of every gallon. _______________ - Proud padawan of Kueller. - We really are at the beginning of it all. The trick, of course, is to make sure we never find the end. - Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything - <gen-e-sis-happy> Liek, you can train, liek, a n00b, but he'll just be a trained n00b... --> Wise words! - "daer SOE me likes your a company i am having your some money for letting me do stuff cos mes the best amd i do it all meself" - Slider |
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Halendor - Ex-Student 
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Well, as Javaguy said, the people would just buy extra gas the day before, and so the oil companies would have no trouble coping with the loss. I guess it would be a little more dangerous when everybody would stay at home too  |
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JavaGuy - Student 
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That's ridiculous. The people who don't buy gas on that day will simply buy it the day before or the day after. Oil companies don't go belly-up because they have one bad day; major oil companies have had whole fiscal years in which they lost hundreds of millions. They survive on the cash they have on hand, sell assets or borrow enough money to stay afloat against the day when profits will increase again, and in this scenario that literally means the very next day. Economic conspiracy theories involving whole industries or businesses being toppled by boycots or cutthroat competition have been around forever, and anyone who has ever taken an economics course knows better. Boycotts can achieve their desired policy changes in some instances, but don't look for them to shake the foundations of the economy. Back when Standard Oil was the Big Dawg in the Yard they threatened to run a small producer out of business by selling at far below cost. The small producer was more efficient and could sell for less than Standard Oil and still make a profit. The theory was that since Standard Oil was much bigger, by selling at far below cost they would set the market price at a level where the small producer could not make a profit and would be run out of business. This was in the days when such threats were legal. The small producer wrote back and said, essentially, "Bring it on." He knew that Standard Oil's size was precisely the reason this scheme couldn't work because every day of selling below cost meant they'd be selling a mountain of barrels of oil at a loss. He could afford simply to shut down his business and live for a short while on his accumulated assets while Standard Oil was bleeding from every orifice. Standard Oil understood this too and never made good on its threat. Watch out for economic conspiracy theori _______________ My signature is only one line. You're welcome. |
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Gradius - Ex-Student
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ROFLMAO! My mom got an e-mail saying the same thing. However, if nobody buys gas tomorrow, all the oil companies would go bankrupt, as well as gas stations. Here in the states, gas stations make about 2 cents off of every gallon sold. Just one day of no sales is enough to take them down, same for the oil companies. All the money that was flowing in would stop for one day, and thousands of people would be laid-off. I'm not sure exactly how all the math works but my mom explained it to me (she as a degree in accounting) and it sounded reasonable. Anyways, one day of no gas would eventually turn into weeks-months without gas. Then, a lot of America's economy would go down the drain because people can't get to work. That's why this idea hasn't worked before. _______________ - Proud padawan of Kueller. - We really are at the beginning of it all. The trick, of course, is to make sure we never find the end. - Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything - <gen-e-sis-happy> Liek, you can train, liek, a n00b, but he'll just be a trained n00b... --> Wise words! - "daer SOE me likes your a company i am having your some money for letting me do stuff cos mes the best amd i do it all meself" - Slider |
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3th - Retired 
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it'd be nice to see vehicles that are better for the environment get huge tax breaks (or something) to help their popularity. i'd buy one in a second, but i don't have $20,000 to drop on a hybrid  not only that but i don't see George W making moves that would take money out of the pockets of his big oil buddies. granted EVERY politician has big money buddies...except Nader maybe _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! |
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Ulic |retired| - Student 
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Nothing is free. But in the Skandinavian countries, and the Netherlands, who happen to be the most prosperous countries, people have paid enormous high taxes to pay for the not-so-fortunate. Everyone's been paying for year and years, and when you must have a surgery, it will be paid by the insurance, and that's paid by other people who insure. The government has a large part in this. So it's not free, it's been paid by your parents and your neighbour. But soon it won't be that perfect, the babyboom from after the war is getting old, and soon we'll have to pay the. That won't last long. _______________ Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam |
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Bandit - Student 
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Quote: Oh please, everything in Denmark is twice as expensive as it is in America. Including gas. Don't be so sad because your prices go from cheap as hell to cheap. The prices for many things such as food, transportion and entertainment are probably high in Denmark compared with the US. I bet the wages are also relatively high compared to the median wage in the US (just a guess). Besides, doesn't the Danish welfare system mean that many services are free, such as medical assistance and education? Those two things cost a fortune here in the States... _______________ Part-Time Player (Weekend Warrior). Recipient of the prestigious "Longest-Post-Ever Award" (bestowed on me by Flash on March 23rd, 2004) |
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JavaGuy - Student 
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The cost of what you buy is not dollars. Dollars are just a medium of exchange. As such, they are good for measuring cost, but remember that you're measuring with a rubber band since we print more dollars, thus changing their value all the time. Something that costs a dollar today certainly does not cost the same as something that cost a dollar fifty years ago. The real cost of something is what you must give up for it. For the wealthy that could mean do I buy a boat or a beach house if I only have enough cash for one of those things? For most of us, though, it means how many hours of our precious time do we give up. If I make eight dollars an hour after taxes and want something that costs $80, then the cost of that thing is ten hours of my life. Why do I bring this up? To point out an important fact: Gasoline today costs the average working American about fifteen minutes of his time per gallon. That's actually less than it cost in the "golden era" of the 50s when, at least in our hazy memory, gasoline was supposedly so cheap. Do I wish it were still $1.40 per gallon? Hell yeah! But I don't pretend that it costs a bloody fortune. Second point: About forty cents per gallon go to Federal taxes. Why? Supposedly to build roads. You use the roads, you buy gasoline, so you pay for the roads. Makes sense, right? Not really, because the states build the roads, not the Federal government. What actually happens is that the Federal government takes the money from the gas tax and doles it out to the states...after every bureaucrat in the Department of Transportation has taken his cut. Whatever's left over after Washington takes it cut goes back to your state where you originally paid the taxes to build roads. Well, not exactly. By definition the states where people drive the most need the most money for their transportation budgets, so it would make more sense for the states to collect the taxes directly. Under the current system the Federal government takes its cut and then doles out the money, not to the states that pay the most in but to the states that have the most powerful representatives on the transportation committee. North Dakota and South Dakota, for example, are about the same size, have about the same population and about the same amount of highway, yet one of them (I forget which) regularly gets far more money in its Federal transportation handout simply because it has a powerful representative on the Transportation Committee. Ick. Now if the Federal government stopped doing that, the price of gas would instantly drop forty cents a gallon. Yes, the states would then have to impose their own gasoline tax in order to build highways, but because they would not have to pay tribute to the bureacrats in Washington it would be a lot cheaper. Plus a state has obvious motivation to spend its own money wisely, whereas the Washington bureacrats think of the money as just a freebie from states they don't have to live in. Third point, and perhaps most important: While the mainstream media have been vilifying the rise in gas prices, the truth is that the price is driven by the law of supply and demand, and the current rise is due to demand. What demand? From Asia, where economic growth is red-hot. Companies are manufacturing and shipping goods willy-nilly, and all that requires a lot of gasoline. So they're buying it. And that's driving the price up. It's good news, not bad. Yes, I'd rather pay less at the pump, but the other side of the coin is that a lot of people who need jobs are getting them. _______________ My signature is only one line. You're welcome. |
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Silencio - Student 
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What Aratan said. Except that everything costs more in Norway than in Denmark. So quit yer whining! _______________ Second-in-command of the mighty FiZZsters |
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Jacen Aratan - Student |
Oh please, everything in Denmark is twice as expensive as it is in America. Including gas. Don't be so sad because your prices go from cheap as hell to cheap. This comment was edited by Jacen Aratan on May 18 2004 02:18pm. |
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Halendor - Ex-Student 
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What Fizz said. Stop moaning! |
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Casual - Student 
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I gotta underline what Fizz is saying. You guys have it easy! In Finland the price is looming near the 1.2 euros per litre, and that's NOT cheap -Cas _______________ Thanks to the human heart by which we live, Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears, To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. |
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Fizz of Belouve - Student 
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2$ per GALLEON ? GAH. FEH FEH FEH! the price in europe for 1 LITER of gasoline is currently higher than 1$. now do the math. thats more than TWICE the price. yeah, you poor folks should really boycott that price. *shakes head* _______________ One of the Belouve boys, founder of the mighty FiZZsters Midbie council #20 - Fizz - #1933 - Jan '03 - Aug '04 "Renfield, you idiot!" |
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Garos - Student 
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That's tomorrow. Hmm, I don't hink it'll work. Or maybe not even happen. Will you post the results tomorrow? |
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Buzz - Student 
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Our own oil resources.... That would be the Alaskan Pipeline where none of the oil is used in the US. We sell that off to countries like Japan and charge them outrageously for it. _______________ When you are going through Hell, keep going. -Sir Winston Churchill. Those who seek power and control of others, no matter the level, no matter the intentions, should never be given it. |
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Tido - Student 
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won't work sry...support America finding its own oil resources and lessen its dependance on foreign oil. |
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Buzz - Student
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They've tried this so many times. It doesn't work. Because you need to buy gas. If you don't buy it on the 19th you'll just fill up on the 18th or the 20th. You'd honestly be better off boycotting specific corporations gas stations so that company loses money but its competitors make more and causing them to have an excess of gas so they'll need to drop prices to sell it. That's supply and demand. Of course you try doing that when they raise the gas prices 20 cents in a single day when its the exact same gas from the day before. No trucks came and refilled it. Same gas different price. By the way the US pays less than half for its gas than the entire rest of the world. _______________ When you are going through Hell, keep going. -Sir Winston Churchill. Those who seek power and control of others, no matter the level, no matter the intentions, should never be given it. |
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