but chain letters always tell the truth, right?

Ah, it's the day after the glorious gas boycott of May 19th, 2004. The oil industry suffered terrible losses and in trembling humility has capitulated to the demands of consumers. The prices at gas stations are plummeting, OPEC is opening up new supplies, and oil executives were seen groveling and handing out free diesel.

Oh, wait, check that. I meant to say, not a damn thing changed. How could this be, you ask? Your well meaning friends sent you this email and you forwarded it to 10 other suckers so that you wouldn't get herpes. And all of them filled up on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. How could that not bring the oil companies to their knees? What about the 4.6 billion dollars the email spoke about? Surely, the email couldn't have lied. After all, it was written in all caps. Doesn't that imply a well researched, thoroughly documented source? It stuns me how little effort and thought it would take to identify the latest boycott email as an impotent hoax. And yet it reached so many. Damn, people, turn on your brains! How exactly are you threatening the vitality of the oil industry by giving them more business on Tuesday and Thursday than on Wednesday?

I'm no fan of the practices of certain sectors of the fuel industry. The major sources of oil limit the supply to drive up the price. Refineries are not far from monopoly status (at least in California) and have huge profit margins. Rumors are spread which incite investors to drive up the wholesale price of gasoline. But, we the consumers enable these practices. If we didn't consume gas so ravenously and invariably gas prices would be much lower. I'm aware that other factors also heavily influence the price of gas. I too remember a few winters ago when the pump prices got below 90¢ in California. Clearly demand has not increased by a factor of 2½. And well documented reports show that the oil industry has been gouging consumers (large pdf warning). Sadly, politicians show little interest in helping us out and the average consumer can't change the policies of major oil companies. But, we can use less gas. And regardless of any dishonest business activities we can lower the price of gas. But, we don't. We just complain and keep on fueling up. Not to mention, half the population supports the use of 15,000,000 gallons of fuel per day for us to occupy Iraq. Through expanded military activity, increased travel, and more commuters the demand for gas keeps going up and so will the price.

How many of you consciously make an effort to save gas? Walk to the store, the bank, the barber. One mile? So, what? Enjoy the stroll. Take the metro. Carpool. Don't drive during rush hour. Beg your boss to let you shift your hours earlier or later so you can avoid stop and go traffic. Don't accelerate or break too quickly. Over-breaking is particularly odious since you force everyone behind you to break and then play catch-up.

Anyway, whether or not you care about saving gas, you should at least avoid passing on stupid chain letters.