May 15th Gas Boycott is a Bad Idea

In Theory it Sounds Good...but the Reality is it Just Won't Work

I received an e-mail the other day -- one of those chain letter type of things that one person sends to 10 friends and each of those 10 individuals sends the e-mail to 10 friends, etc, etc and before you know a whole bunch of folks have received the same e-mail. The e-mail I received (you may have received the same one) goes something like this:

"Don't pump gas on MAY 15^th!

In April 1997, there was a "gas out" conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.

On May 15th 2007, all internet users are to not go to a gas station in protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most places.

There are 73,000,000+ American members currently on the internet network, and the average car takes about 30 to 50 dollars to fill up.

If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companies pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on May 15^th and lets try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one day.

If you agree (which I can't see why you wouldn't) resend this to all your contact list. With it saying, ''Don't pump gas on May 15th"

Variations of the gas boycott e-mail have circulated annually since 1999, according to rumor-debunking Web site snopes.com, maybe earlier. My question is -- do any of these chain letters do any good? And also, if everyone in the United States stops buying gas on the 15 of May (or any other day for that matter) will it have any effect on how much we pay for gas?

I did a little digging and unfortunately I didn't come up with anything extremely promising.

According to urbanlegends.about.com, economists say it's unlikely that any form of consumer boycott could have an appreciable effect on gas prices nationally. Furthermore, it is hard to conceive of a less effective way to "organize" such a boycott than passing around an anonymous, randomly distributed chain letter like the one above. Past attempts have shown little or no results.