Reply #16: Since it's obvious what the subject of this thread WAS... [View All]

[Spider Jerusalem]

(the 'Exxon-Mobil boycott' nonsense)--it's a bad idea, based on an extremely poor understanding of economics. Exxon-Mobil is a single company of dozens. A mass boycott of all Exxon=Mobil gas stations would result in a shifting of consumer demand to ALL THE OTHER gas stations. WHich would have the result of effectively creating a bottleneck in the supply chain (same # of consumers, trying to fulfil unreduced demand through a number of suppluiers effectively reduced by boycott). This would quite likely have the effect of creating supply disruptions (thanks to the fact that an effectively reduced number of retail outlets experiencing an overall demand increase would run into shortages), which would drive prices UP, and not down. And Exxon-Mobil's bottom line would be relatively unaffected; they'd still operate refineries that sell gasoline to non-Exxon retailers; they'd still reap the profits of high oil prices, thanks to their primary production assets---in short, this would not only achieve nothing, but it would have the opposite of the intended effect.