I keep discussing this with my friends and family, what with the rising oil prices and whatnot... Does anyone remember the 90s? Remember when diesel jumped like a dollar in a month and all of the truckers (in the US at least) stopped driving? Well... that shut down 75% of the economy because there was no way to get anything moved, so in turn, the fuel price was forced down.

Why won't the average person do this? If EVERYONE refused to goto work (or even travel) until gas was brought down, then I'm willing to bet within two days it would drop like a brick.... I'm pretty sure the average american could miss two days at work to save thousands in gas...

Oh and before everyone says 'well not "everyone" can skip work, what about emergency response workers, ect ect'... you're right, they couldn't, but in retrospect, they probably represent less than 5% of the population, and would likely need much less on staff if everyone stayed home and didnt crash their cars, fall at work, speed...

Just my thoughts... DISCUSS

HEY GUYS, FIGHT THE MAN GUYS!

We should all have anarchy! YEAH!

MIGHT MAKES RIGHT.

thanks for your usual pointless feedback, anyone else?

People will ***** and moan about gas prices yet freeways will be clogged and life goes on. Gas climbs to $4+/gal. Inflation drives dollar down. People ***** and moan again. Freeways are clogged still. Gas climbs to $5.

First and foremost, suppose you do get your $1 off of gas. Now what? Clearly the gas went right back up. Fat lot of good those truckers did when diesel climbed up not one but $2. Where were they? Surely not all of them retired. ****, there's still plenty from those days that could start back up another rally.

You really want to do a "**** THA MAN!" type thing. Start bringing alt. fuels into the scene. Yeah hybrids might be a start but it still burns gas.

The only option I've seen mentioned anywhere that doesn't involve alt fuel is to pretty much boycott one supplier. If *everyone* (again, inherent problem in that) stopped going to Exxon-Mobil owned stations, they'd have to drop prices to entice people to come back. At least this idea was more thought out than "Hey everybody, let's not buy gas on Tuesday, that'll show them!"

Hybrids in some cases still isn't worth the cost, only the tree-huggers are willing to shell out extra cash for that. Corn-based ethanol is a crock of **** as well.

Is it bad that it took me a while to realize that you weren't talking about some newsgroup here?

Thankfully most people with basic economic sense realizes that the cost of shutting down productivity would cost the economy wwwwaaaaayyyy more money than the increasing gas prices do. Think about it, would you rather an entire business shutdown their operations for a few days which would cause their profits to tank in order to save a few bucks at the pump? Of course not because the marginal costs out weigh the marginal benefits.

I agree with Baconfish.

Yes, because everyone knows killing the economy more will lower gas prices! Wait, no, they won't.

Hahaha best post ever, thanks!

The cost of the economy of shutting everything down is what it takes to prove to 'THA MAN' that the people still run this country, they just seem to have forgotten that they control more than one vote during election time.

Yes. A great plan. Let's destroy the economy and bring about global depression so gas will go to $3.25 a gallon.

Stop posting, you're worse than Tiberium at this point.

Take the bus. Buy a motorcycle.

It takes more energy to produce one Prius hybrid than a single Hummer.

The nickel mines that supply the material for the batteries in electric cars are creating huge wastelands to rival the environmental impact of drilling in ANWAR. The leather that supplies the seats is killing so many cows that it is throwing off the methane balance of the atmosphere! THE BLINKER FLUID IS DRAINING OUR OCEANS.

This is such a great idea. Let's do this to our economy, especially when it's in the state that it is now.

You seem very nonchalant about the whole "missing a day of work" as if everyone can afford to or in a position to allow to just take off a day. I'm almost wondering if you actually have a job now. Even if people did this, the effect of it hardly would be worth the trouble seeing they would need to buy gas the next day.

There was a protest years ago where people, trying to make a statement about homosexuality or something, organized a day where they would not go to commercial places and buy things. It hardly made an impression.

The only thing that would work was what happened during the summer of 07. People in general lowered their gas usage, in reaction to high costs, and suddenly there was a small dip in price. But this has to occur over a long period of time. One day protests will never work.

So go do it you spineless hack

THe problem with a protest like this is that the next day, they'll make double normal profits because everyone who needed gas they day before and didn't get it will get it the next day.

What we really need is a competitive company that FORDS electric cars and sells at a loss for a year or 2. It wont happen because there's lots of more profitable ways to spend money in today's ugly economy than selling products at a loss in order to introduce a new technology into the consumer's hands.

56mpg omg

http://smartusa.com/

My grandpa had an old Honda Civic that got ~50mpg highway. Why is it that hybrid cars can't even get close to this in most cases?

Or you could, you know, use alternative transportation to go to work, reducing demand for gasoline on a more permanent basis while putting pressure on governments to improve infrastructure that isn't so specifically aimed at single-person vehicles. Any decrease in gas prices will be temporary. If you want to make a difference, help us move beyond dependence on petroleum.

Am I the only one who thinks gas inflation is, oh, NOT BAD for such a demanded and LIMITED commodity? It's not like some commodities, which can be replenished in a relatively short time, like food products, or even re-used, like gold. Personally, I hope they raise the prices so unreasonably high that our culture will be forced to find alternative energies and methods sooner. I don't expect things to be easy (I know I'm the cause of this cultural problem too), but with the way things are, WW3 is going to crop up because we can't make that 5 minute drive to the grocery store anymore.

I hate the gas is so expensive because it hits me hard in my checking account, but at the same time, it's driving a more rapid development of alternative fuels, which is good. Oil is a limited commodity. When it becomes too expensive to effectively exploit, there needs to be other forms of fuels to power everything.

All the extra weight from the useless electric motor.

Hybrids improve the city mileage pretty significantly. They're great if all you do is putz around the city all the time. On the highway, they use the gas motor and get the same mileage as their gas only counter parts.

It got 45mpg city. My point still stands.

That same car with a hybrid engine will get 50-55 mpg in the city, so no it doesn't because the electric engine kicks in when the car is idling and when the car is accelerating, which is when the most gas is used. Hybrids get better mileage in the city than they do on the highway.

A small bore motorcycle will get 90-110 mpg...

I THINK I WIN THIS E-BATTLE

Maybe someone needs to invent a hybrid motor cycle.

And really, if people stopping buy SUVs and other cars that get 14 mpg and started driving cars that got 25-30 mpg, there would be far less demand for gas and gas would be cheaper.

Pfft, Less demand would just make the oil companies complain about "Profit margins" or some other shiz and raise it even higher.

!

Worse?!
How can anyone ever be worse?!
I am insulted.

I just said all of that. Already. In like, 6 words.

1) Collective action problem. Look it up.
2) Refusing to buy gas for a couple of days doesn't reduce demand, it only postpones that demand briefly. Gas suppliers know that people will have to buy eventually, so they'll keep their prices the same, or worse, raise them and cash in when boycotters are finally forced to cave. You want to reduce gas prices? Reduce demand. Drive less.
3) Gas suppliers also know that the demand for gas is highly inelastic and will change very little even with large changes in price. As long as people are making enough at their jobs to pay for their gas, they'll keep driving to work and they'll keep buying gas.
3a) Geb's right, they could charge us a lot more if they wanted to.
4) The very idea that such a minor change in our lifestyles as skipping work and not filling up the tank for two days would cause the gas suppliers to see the error of their ways is incredibly silly. You don't get to change the world without inconveniencing yourself a bit.
5) Boycotting selected companies won't work because they'll just sell their stock to the companies you aren't boycotting.
6) That thing everyone keeps mentioning about tanking the economy by not working.

You'd have to decrease overall consumption, not just not drive for a few days. That's not how supply and demand works. At all.

Summary of thread;

KOP_AoEJedi is developmentally challenged.

One of the most efficient forms of human transportation.


Second only to

Depends on your definition of efficiency.

Yeah, that horse has like.. one horsepower?

Yeah, I should take the horse I have in the garage for a ride more often.