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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
May 30, 2004
Protests over gas
costs stall |
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The national
average for a gallon of gasoline is above $2.00 for the first time.
In an attempt to affect the rising cost of gasoline, a 24-hour
nation-wide boycott was initiated.
The unsolicited e-mails from friends and strangers
started arriving around May 13. The subject headings read,
“Just do it,” “We can do this,” “We will show them,” or “May 19
is Stick It To Them Day.” This formally declared day
would show the greedy oil barons that we the American consumers were
the real bosses. The text of the e-mails went on to explain
that someone had calculated the oil industry would lose $4.6 billion
if no one bought gas for one day.
In order to support this effort, some planning on my
part was in order since I had to drive a good distance on May 18 and
20. Feeling patriotic, or maybe just stupid, there I was at
9:58 p.m. on May 18 filling my tank with certain cockiness about me
as the pump read $7.00, $9.00, $15.00, and finally $34.97. For
good measure, I topped it off at $35.00. Yep, this act of
defiance was really sticking it to the oil companies. A full
tank of gas would carry me through the next 24 hours.
My tactic was probably not that unique, though.
If millions of other boycotters had done the same, what did we
prove? Sure, we sent a message, but we might as well have sent
a Post-it note to the oil companies stating, “Here Mr. Oil Man, take
my hard earned money a day in advance. What we normally would
have spent tomorrow we are gladly giving you today.” If we took
this idea of paying in advance seriously and expanded it to our
credit card bills, now that would make a statement.
May 19 came and went. I stopped at a couple gas
stations for non-fuel items, in particular four cups of coffee.
Let’s see, four 16 ounce cups of roasted Columbian coffee at $1.05 a
cup equals $4.20. That equates to exactly $8.40 a gallon.
Ouch!
Since we are upset at the manipulation of us by foreign
producers, what if we priced other imported desirables by the
gallon? What is the price per gallon for a good German beer,
Canadian whiskey, or French wine?
Hey, why stop at liquid products or foreign goods?
Let’s take this thing to a whole new level and send a message to
Wall Street and Washington, D.C. We can show all manufacturers
of goods, especially pharmaceutical companies, and the plethora of
taxing bodies that we don’t have to pay their outrageous prices and
fees. Quick, someone circulate an e-mail and suggest we pick a
day, say July 4th and just stop living for 24 hours.
They won’t make a dime off our backs. That will show them how
serious American consumers can be.
Not knowing who the originator of the May 19 boycott
was, I would not be surprised if it came from a computer in some oil
company office. I did my part and didn’t buy a drop of gas,
but I didn’t drive any less, either. Now I really feel like a
fool.
Americans laugh at overweight folks who blame fast food
joints for their obesity and want the government to step in.
Yet we fail to see how our dependency on foreign oil is a personal
choice, too. We want our government to protect us from the
consequences of our vices. It may happen, too, but not until
we get closer to the presidential election.
Speaking of Americans and our quirky habits, why do we
gripe about paying handsomely to import liquids such as beer,
coffee, wine, whiskey, and oil, but say little about the price we
also pay to export our most precious liquid, the blood of our
soldiers? |
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