Have you seen this? It's all over my Facebook wall. Don't buy gas on April 15th and we'll send a message? No, that won't work and let me tell you why.
How many people who plan to not buy gas will just fill up on April 14th or April 16? All of them. You aren't taking any money out of the pockets of oil companies when you give them your money a day early or a day late.
In a boycott, you have to do without something. Can we all do without gas for a month? No, we can not. We have to work, no matter how high prices climb. We have to go to the store. If we could go without, then perhaps an attempt at a "gas out" would be effective. Instead, the monthly gas sales will stay the same. Even the amount of sales within the week will stay the same. A one day boycott doesn't help anything, sadly.
It's actually funny, every year or two an email forward or something similar to this goes around. That "gas out" in 1997? Yeah, gas never dropped by 30 cents. Sorry!
Instead of trying to not spend on April 15th, think of long term ways you can cut your gas usage. For instance- try to do all your shopping in one trip to town, instead of going to a different store every day of the week. For us, it's a 25 minute drive to the city I prefer to shop in. If I can do it all on one day instead of having to go back 3-4 days in a week, we stand to stretch our gas out significantly.
Also, please feel free to check out "Snopes.com". I've included the direct link to the page about gas boycotting. They have compiled all the various forms of this same sentiment that have been around since 1999.
-Kristen
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