i'm a silent partner on a number of blogs.
For various reasons, i add my email address to blogs i've worked on or helped out with so that way i can spot and fix problems before the owners do. Because of that, i also tend to see a lot of comments that you don't.
Take, f'rinstance, Matt's post about the Gas Strikes. Although you don't see it, it's become a veritable lighting rod of controversy from folks stating (no, more like DEMANDING!!) that a one day "gas strike" against the petrol station of choice is an effective way to "Send a message to big oil".
You know, kind of like the best way to argue the price of artichokes is by picketing your local supermarkets produce aisle for a day. Say, Wednesday because you don't want to miss the coupon deal in the Sunday paper.
Mind you, these sorts of actions kind of have their own vision of the laws of supply and demand, and don't really bother with details like the fact that sending a message requires a bit more action than that. To be honest, reducing gas prices is actually fairly straight forward, drive responsibly (regardless of vehicle) and generally consume less petrol, and convince folks around you to do the same thing. Heck, most companies are now offering mass transit discounts since it helps out with their taxes, so grab the bus one day out of the week.
Granted, some folks just really like the idea of a "gas strike", partly because it's a meaningless action that makes them feel good. (Seriously, if you want to strike, make it more than one day. That's just offsetting costs. Business ledgers won't even notice it.)
Me? i like sending a message that i'm a cheap bastard. i'm driving slower and doing things to increase my mileage, and yeah, i'm trying to ride on someone else's dime whenever possible. Particularly now since i'm out of the really cheap gas.
Cripes, could somebody leave some sensible comments on that blog post? I'm getting a headache and starting to get rrreally short-tempered in the face of … well, idiots. And they keep accusing me of being unAmerican!
My girlfriend lives in Milwaukee (about an hour away for me) so I've tried doing some hypermiling techniques to ease the pain. Not the dangerous, rude ones like shutting off your engine or tailgating big rigs, but momentum-based techniques like accelerating down hills and coasting to stop signs have improved my mileage by 15-20%.
Oh MAN! I love me some granny drivin'!
So I've got a little Average MPG display on my car. Normally, it reads around 18.6 MPG for most of my drives. Not too bad.
Today, I did some granny driving to see what a difference it would make in my milage.
1) let the idle start rolling me before I hit the gas.
2) keep the rpms at about 2K
3) goose it down hills
4) try to remain rolling at stops.
I'll add that my drive is about 12 miles on Lawrence Expressway which has lots of non-synchronized lights and is fairly congested as a major route.
My average MPG was 24.6.
That's 6 MPG better than my normal average, and I stayed pace with traffic (it just took me 6 seconds to get to speed rather than 2), and nobody got pissed. I beat the listed city MPG by 2.6. Heck, a few folks paced behind me since I didn't have to hit the breaks as often as other folks. I was getting 2 weeks on average to a tank of gas, but this might push it to three!
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Consumers are such idiots, they mess up the beauty of the system.
Rather than strike for a day, they need to pick on a company and make demands. "We will never buy from you again until you drop your pump price 20 cents per gallon." Then starve 'em.
And once that company does drop prices, everyone switches and forces the rest to follow. It's quite simple, and if someone's going to go to the trouble to organize people, a much better solution.
Of course, due to the complexities of the distribution network, care has to be taken in selecting both an appropriate target and an appropriate drop in price. You don't want to just drive the gas station itself out of business while giving your somewhat-hard-earned dollar to the filthy robber-barons anyway. You have to pick on one level up in the chain.
Of course, I actually see this as an excuse to beat up people who buy from the boycotted outlets, because they're obviously acting against the common good. Sociopaths.