What would happen if no one in the U.S. bought gas for a day?

[La]

There's apparently this event on facebook happening on March 14th or March 31 where no one is supposed to buy gas. Wouldnt this help contribute to the decline of the stock market?

Tell me what you think.

[Jason]

Well, the buying gas thing would just be postponed a day - perhaps USING no gas for a period of time would be more effective....

[rkbtoo]

it will never happen you arent going to get millions of people not to buy gas

[Erik Nostin]

It wouldn't do anything. The lost profits from one day of boycotting does not compensate for the long-term trend of gas purchases. All you are doing is forcing the gas purchases to be dumped into the day before or after the single-day boycot. The number of cars being used has not significantly changed between yesterday, today, and tomorrow, so the demand will continue to exist, as will the consumption rate of the gasoline in those vehicles. It is a useless gesture against an oil-generating monolith that could care less. If you want to make an impact, decrease consumption over the long term. Use your bicycle, buy fuel-efficient cars, and drive demand down.

[Robert]

Won't do squat. If you use the same amount of gas in the end, it won't matter if it was purchased on a Wednesday or a Thursday.

Now if people actually committed to cut their consumption by 20%...THAT would make a difference.

[Fred F]

Nothing would happen. People would fill up the day before.

[Bored Goblin]

Everybody would buy more gas the day before and the day after, so not a whole lot of anything would happen. And these events have been organized like 20 times in the past. And stock market keeps hitting new highs.

[Spotty J]

That's a marker for stupid people.