Boycott Gasoline?
By Brian Wise (05/20/04)
A plea for mass protest in an electronic mail: “It has been calculated that if everyone in the United States did not purchase a drop of gasoline for one day, and all at the same time, the oil companies would choke on their stockpiles. At the same time, it would hit the entire industry with a net loss of over 4.6 billion dollars, which affects the bottom line of the oil companies. Therefore, May 19th has been formally declared ‘Stick It To Them Day’ and the people of this nation should not buy a single drop of gasoline.”
Pause here to make a tired old point. What so often motivates the American people to protest would represent untold luxuries elsewhere, even in industrialized nations: the average Brit would club a baby seal on television for gasoline that costs two dollars and twelve cents a gallon (what I paid last Friday). Pause to make that point only because, even in 2004, Americans still aren’t comfortable enough with how good we’ve got it in relation to the rest of the world, and should be.
But gasoline is a quality of life issue. Americans have no choice but to move, movement requires gasoline; the more money it costs to undertake regular movements, the more pain is felt. On this I offer absolutely no argument; I know no one, myself included, who can afford to pay the modern price for average movements. Gasoline prices are inhibitive and hurtful, and those with little or no money are damaged incrementally as the prices continue to rise.
Problem is, too many Americans also refuse to acknowledge there are such things as alternatives beyond those they would comfortably abandon in times of financial distress. Do you smoke? In New York City cigarettes cost more than seven dollars per pack and are slightly more reasonable elsewhere, an amount that far more than doubles the price for a gallon of gasoline there (provided you can find a gas station anywhere in Manhattan). Do you drink bottled water, or any sort of bottled beverage? Pay even a dollar for a twelve ounce bottle (and good luck finding that bargain) and you end up paying over ten dollars for a gallon of that product without giving it a thought. Hell, the gas station down the street is selling a forty-four ounce drinks for seventy-three cents during the summer, which comes to two dollars and nineteen cents a gallon, including the four overflow ounces.
Continues the appeal for protest: “Waiting on this administration to step in and control prices is not going to happen. What happened to the reduction and control in prices that the Arab nations promised two weeks ago? Remember one thing: Not only is the price of gasoline going up but at the same time the airlines are forced to raise their prices, trucking companies are forced to raise their prices, which effects prices on everything that is shipped. Things like food, clothing, building materials, medical supplies, etc. Who pays in the end? We do!”
Ah-ha, so the point of this protest isn’t conservation of any sort, just lower gasoline prices and the ability to do damage to companies for not making lower prices happen. The tunnel vision gives pause; if the great question is a financial one, it stands to reason someone should be willing to cut corners if he so values the ability to move as freely as he did one year ago, or five years ago. Assume prices will average two dollars a gallon for the remainder of the summer and well into the fall – if too few people are willing to make those sorts of sacrifices, well, the blame doesn’t shift, but it does branch out quite a bit.
That’s a bigger philosophical point than many Americans are willing to consider, which is how things like gasoline boycotts get started. As sympathetic as I am to the point, those most hoping this boycott will work are forgetting gasoline is a commodity, or hoping others will forget. At the start of business Thursday, those who needed gasoline on Wednesday but who held out in the name of protest will take the pumps and make their purchases; who will have learned what in twenty-four hours?
Boycott if, compelled by circumstance, you feel you must. No one will blame you. But if the goal is to make a financial statement, then conservation at and beyond the gas pump should be your first consideration, and will be your best bet.
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