gas protests

I got an email forwarded today asking me to not buy gas on Weds, May 19, to stick it to the oil companies for charging us so much. Here is an excerpt from it:

BUY NO GAS ON MAY 19th!!
DON'T BUY GAS ON MAY 19TH IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE
OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES. AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.

I just had to reply to the sender, and we went back and forth a few times with this being my final answer:

Why do people not get that this will not make a difference?! They may not get their 4.6 billion tomorrow but if you still drive they will get it today or Thursday and they don't care if they don't see it tomorrow - 2.3 billion additional on their books for Tuesday and Thursday looks just the same at the end of the month. The only way to really impact their profit is to say nobody drive Weds - then your consumption goes down, you buy less, they make less. I don't need gas tomorrow anyway so I automatically play along by default but do you see that since you need gas today you are simply giving them their money early? Or if you wait until Thursday to fill up you give it to them a day later?

I'm all for taking action for something you believe in, but make it an action that will have results. And think it through when someone sends you something instead of just jumping on the bandwagon. I am not a genius, so it should be easy for the average person to figure out that no reduction in consumption means no reduction in profit.