Baldy

boycott for a couple days won't do squat, because everyone would just fill up before the 2 days, or afterward. They're still going to drive those 2 days.



I like my bike, 50 mpg all city miles, driving hard.

TYSON

I saw an interesting boycott proposal, the idea was to boycott ONE gas company. They would be forced to lower their prices to draw customers, which would cause the others to lower their prices. The public would really have no problem boycotting one company for a long period of time, you'd just fill up elsewhere.



Problem would be that I'm sure they'd get their heads together and the other would give money to the boycotted company, allowing them to stay in business and keep their prices high.

ColinRX7

**** this, I'm installing a propane kit on my car.

Shane.Trammell

[quote name='TYSON' date='Aug 16 2005, 11:06 AM']And you say you're a student? not much supply and demand or problem solving work?



Where do you think the oil they use to make diesel comes from? Why would Saudia Arabia curbing production cause oil prices to rise here then?


[/quote]





i dont believe this problem is supply AND demand, but strictly demand. they know we have to have this stuff, and by raising prices they arent selling any less just making more money. Everytime i hear the supply and demand excuse used it makes me mad bc even though we use a lot of oil there is still more to be had, and they have it. How many gas stations do you see running out of gas?

Shane.Trammell

[quote name='TYSON' date='Aug 16 2005, 11:14 AM']I saw an interesting boycott proposal, the idea was to boycott ONE gas company. They would be forced to lower their prices to draw customers, which would cause the others to lower their prices. The public would really have no problem boycotting one company for a long period of time, you'd just fill up elsewhere.



Problem would be that I'm sure they'd get their heads together and the other would give money to the boycotted company, allowing them to stay in business and keep their prices high.


[/quote]



i thought of that a while back, start using all but one company, when the boycotted company lowers prices $.10 everyone use that one. When the other companies lower theirs dont use the first company again. its kind of like a teeter-totter effect, keep switching companies until the prices get reasonable.

TYSON

It's not the gas stations.



Supply also means holding back supply. Just because it's there doesn't mean they have to offer it to you at low, low prices. Dubya is over there getting it so he can sell it. Why would he sell it for cheap?



I really don't think a few extra Smart cars, diesel Volkswagens and diesel 3/4 tons on the roads would cause the price of diesel to match the price of gas. The trucking industry uses so much more diesel than individuals do that it's not even funny. Never mind trains and ships.

Shane.Trammell

[quote name='TYSON' date='Aug 16 2005, 11:29 AM']It's not the gas stations.



[/quote]



right but by boycotting all of the say Exxon stations you end up boycotting the company



[quote name='TYSON' date='Aug 16 2005, 11:29 AM']Supply also means holding back supply. Just because it's there doesn't mean they have to offer it to you at low, low prices. Dubya is over there getting it so he can sell it. Why would he sell it for cheap?

[/quote]



the oil companies have access to the oil, thats what people mean when they blame supply and demand, theyre saying that bc there isnt enough supply the companies have to raise the prices to control the demand for what is available. but in all actuallity there is no less supply, just higher prices.



[quote name='TYSON' date='Aug 16 2005, 11:29 AM']

I really don't think a few extra Smart cars, diesel Volkswagens and diesel 3/4 tons on the roads would cause the price of diesel to match the price of gas. The trucking industry uses so much more diesel than individuals do that it's not even funny. Never mind trains and ships.


[/quote]



There are a lot more diesel cars on the road here than there were a few years ago, and right when the presence of diesels starting increasing the price of the fuel for them did too. Diesel was, until a year or so ago, always less expensive than unleaded. What happened, did the cost of making diesel go up so much that it forced the price of a gallon of diesel to increase so much that it was more than unleaded? No, the oil companies see that diesels are getting twice as many miles to the gallon as a regular gas car and they raised the price so those people are still stuck paying high prices per mile. Its the same thing that happened when manufacturers started saying that you only need to change your oil every 5 or 10k miles instead of 3k. The price of an oil change went up and so did the price of a quart of oil. So at the time there was a potentially money saving alternative to the norm, but so the oil companies wouldnt be out any money they raised prices so now even though they tell you that you only have to change the oil every 5 or 10k miles, youll still pay as much as you would have back in the day when it was every 3k.

TYSON

Go to a truck stop. No way a fuel company is going to raise the prices to try to profit on a few 50 mpg diesel Golfs and at the same time jack up the prices on the hundreds of thousands of 4 mpg semi's out there. Like I said, personal diesel use is a drop in the bathtub compared to shipping and farming use.

Shane.Trammell

i kind of see the diesel increase as post hoc ergo propter hoc bc i cant see any other reason why the historically lower diesel would increase faster than unleaded. i know thats a misconception, but its not always wrong

TYSON

Maybe it will help get rid of Just-In-Time manufacturing so we don't have so many half filled trucks swerving all over the road because they're behind schedule!