Enough with the complaints about gas prices already
Posted
Jun 20 2008, 05:51 PM
by
Karen Datko
Don't bother Jennifer Derrick at Saving Advice with your e-mails about boycotts of Big Oil or a nationwide gas no-purchase day. Those tactics won't work, and she's tired of your complaining.
Those e-mails "are both the product of, and perpetuated by, those who would rather complain and look for the easy way out of the oil situation than actually get up and do something about it," she says. Well, Jenn, if you won't let us run our mouths, what would you suggest we do? Change your personal dependence on oil, she says, and you'll have less to kvetch about.
Actually, we know exactly what she means. We've got our finger poised on the delete key whenever we see those e-mails in our in-box.
Why won't these protests work? For one thing, she says, where do you think no-name-brand gas stations are getting their fuel from, if not Big Oil? "Do you think the gas station owner has an oil well and refinery in back of the store and goes out and opens it up when he needs more oil?" she writes. Plus, not buying gas for a day merely means you'll buy it later.
The price of oil is based on factors that span the boundaries of one nation, she explains. But there are two steps individuals can take. "Your congressmen and legislators are the only ones at this point who can make a serious difference in how we provide energy for this country," she writes. Tell them to get busy facilitating development of alternative energy sources, and if they don't, vote them out.
On the home front, adjust to the reality of high fuel prices (and she has many suggestions about how to do that).
She writes, "So, please, the next time you're tempted to complain about rising fuel prices on a message board or to your co-workers, stop and think about how your lifestyle is perpetuating the problem. Maybe the only one you should be complaining to is yourself."
