You must have seen this one 20 times. Boycott Exxon and Mobile and their profits will plummet and their stock will take a dump and the world will have the message that we are tired of high gas prices. If only it would work, but it won't and innocent people will get hurt in the process.
What about Joe, the independent station owner? When you boycott him, he loses a marginal profit at the pump and all of the profit that he depends on inside his convenience store. But, Exxon and Mobile will just sell more of their gas on the spot market or enter into agreements to sell gas to Shell, ARCO etc whose sales will be up as a result of this boycott.
Don't buy gas for a day? Everyone will just buy it a day earlier or a day later, nothing will change.
Here are two real solutions. I prefer the first one. The oil companies will scream like wounded bananas at both:
(1) Place a national CAP on the gross profit that an oil refining company can make per gallon. This would be a two to five year profit freeze. With stockholders screaming for continued growth in dividends, this not only would force better operating techniques to reduce costs, but would also force a drop in price in order to drive volume of gallons sold.
(2) Organize a two-day national "no driving" event. You don't drive to work.... don't even go to work. Don't go shopping, don't go to the beach.... just park. And, don't fly, don't use public transportation.... either walk, ride a bike, or stay at home. Two days would totally tick off every major business in the country as well as government. The economy would grind to a stand still and everyone would get the message. But, this would take a massive organizational effort. It would also improve air quality for two days.
Either one of these alternatives will work well. I prefer the first because it has a longer effect. The two-day event would likely be forgotten within 90 days and prices would soar back up.
But, we CAN take control of this situation. Let's start by putting the pressure on Congress. I think they'd jump at the chance to turn their attention away from the illegal alien issue.
That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.
