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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Stop With The Gas Boycott Bullshit

Anybody with an email address has doubtless received umpteen thousand pieces of forwarded junk mail that contain some version of:

“Don’t buy gas on X date(s)!”
“Don’t buy gas from XYZ and PDQ they support Al-Quida!”
“Walk to work/ride you bike for a week!”

“For every gallon of gas you buy, an American soldier dies!”
“Increased gas prices lead to crack addiction and abortions,”

The list is fucking endless.

It’s time for a reality check. Are you familiar with the term TANSTAAFL? If you aren’t, then Google it.

The fact is the oil supply is finite and the demand is potentially infinite. Do you remember the Third Grade?


Now before you say “But Tommy! That proves that a boycott will lower prices,” let me remind you that petroleum companies are not non-profit organizations. Also remember that oil companies do not just make gasoline. They are out to make a buck, just like you are when you go to work in the morning, or haul your ass out of bed on the 1st to cash your welfare check. You also have to consider that about 30% of the per gallon price is government taxes. About 60% is the cost of the oil itself, and the rest breaks down into transport, (of the oil to the refinery and the gas to the station) marketing, and finally, the profit.

If gasoline consumption were to be decreased by half overnight, one of two things would happen, maybe both:

1:
The price of gas would increase to at least $8 per gallon. That would be the price needed to turn a profit, and the people that still wanted to drive, and could afford it would pay.


2: The price of every thing you buy including utilities, food and clothes would increase dramatically.


Goods are not transported across oceans using sailing ships and they are not shipped to stores using horses. They are transported using huge diesel powered ships, trains and trucks. Want to fly? Good luck paying that $3000 each way from Chicago to Dallas. Aircraft burn oil too. Food prices would sky-rocket. Other then transportation costs, which already take a good chunk out of the wallet, (or purse you goddamn feminist) many fertilizers are petrol-based. Fertilizers are used to grow food for both humans and livestock. All plastics are petrol-based. Think about the military…think about how much oil THEY use! Who do you think will pay for the increased cost of that in the form of new taxes? See where I’m going with this now?

Gasoline could be free in America, but then again…

TANSTAAFL!

Tommy Masterson

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