Protest Gasoline Prices How-To

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I for one salute the gas station owner shutting down his business for 24 hours in Mequon,Wisconsin in order to protest the high gasoline prices. His courage and willingness to forfeit a day of earnings is a rare occurrence in today’s atmosphere of cut-throat competition and where dissent of the status quo is viewed as a negative attitude. His one-man protest is something I can certainly relate to, but I have to agree with some of those who didn’t think it would make much difference.

JG Excerpt:
IMPACT: Industry experts say the move, which Pollack estimates will cost him $1,500, won't make a long-term difference. Pollack says he doesn't disagree, but he hopes the protest will prompt others across the nation to speak out as well.

The least I can do is speak out, so I thought what would really make a long-term difference?

Well for starters, don't boycott Big Oil. That will only lower prices by a nickel or a dime for the short term. Instead, consumers should organize and boycott everybody else. By everybody else I mean all the big box stores, restaurants, hotels, boutique shops, theaters, amusement parks and shopping malls. All the brick and mortar institutions. As far as gasoline is concerned? Buy as much as you keep in your tank, in fact top off constantly. You’ll need gasoline to drive to work and visit family and friends. Anywhere other than your job or the grocery store to sustain yourself are off limits to drive to. Only shop for frivolous consumer goods at places you can walk or bicycle to. What will this accomplish? It will force all the businesses other than Big Oil to send their lobbyists into Washington, DC to put real pressure on Congress to finally put real pressure on Big Oil in order to get their customers back at the stores.

Obviously, Big Oil is not going to lobby Congress for lower gasoline prices and for the most part, politicians work for and listen to corporate business interests more than anyone else. In a way some people pinched by the high prices are already doing this on their own but it needs to catch fire with the kind of enthusiasm that would finally force the issue.

Believe me, the businesses effected by this will send their lobbyists into Congress before they consider laying off employees or shutting down their business.

There is no other way to let Congress know that despite an oil glut, Big Oil has not been able to keep the country supplied with a steady flow of gasoline, and have been gouging huge profits because of doing an extremely poor job - extremely well.