The Republican Love Fest After the Tax Bill was passed.......

[dmc]

Isn't this the crux of it? There are a lot of things that don't personally affect me but that are important for others and our country overall.

I no longer have a child in public school but I gladly pay taxes so that K-12 schooling continues to be tuition-free. I will never be pregnant again but I believe birth control and pregnancy coverage should be a mandatory part of normal health insurance. I don't live in a disaster zone but I'm glad FEMA is there if I should need it.
If we base all of our voting decisions solely on how it personally affects us, we no longer have functioning communities or states, much less a united country. Someone said the motto on the Republican flag is "I've Got Mine." So far in these Republican administrations that, sadly, has proven very true.

And the Democrat motto seems to be I don’t have it so let’s take yours.

[frugal-one]

And the Democrat motto seems to be I don’t have it so let’s take yours.

Go to page 2 of this thread and reread. YOU obviously have no concern for anyone else but yourself!

[jp1]

I see that Oregon has changed its mind about whether people should be allowed to pump their own gas.

I hate to burst your bubble since you seem to be excited that people will have the freedom to do for themselves what was once a service provided with their purchase of a product, but the details are that only gas stations in counties representing about 7% of Oregon's population will be able to make their customers do the work for them. Everyone else lives in a county with at least 40,000 residents and the change doesn't apply to them.

[dmc]

I remember when you could chose full or self service.

[dmc]

Go to page 2 of this thread and reread. YOU obviously have no concern for anyone else but yourself!

Unemployment rate is down, black employment down, I believe to record lows, and 2 million off of food stamps. Stock market is also doing pretty well.

and I believe many are going to notice a little extra in their take home pay soon.

Thing seem to be going pretty good to me.

[Alan]

I hate to burst your bubble since you seem to be excited that people will have the freedom to do for themselves what was once a service provided with their purchase of a product....

Of course the price of a product reflects the labor involved in delivery to the end user. Allowing self-serve operations should be reflected in a lower cost to the consumer which is indeed something to be excited about.
I wonder what Oregon has against the rest of the state, continuing to deny them that option?

[LDAHL]

I hate to burst your bubble since you seem to be excited that people will have the freedom to do for themselves what was once a service provided with their purchase of a product, but the details are that only gas stations in counties representing about 7% of Oregon's population will be able to make their customers do the work for them. Everyone else lives in a county with at least 40,000 residents and the change doesn't apply to them.

It's good to hear the scourge of self-serve gas pumps and the possibility of lower prices will be limited to a small fraction of the population. If you go around letting businesses and their customers make such decisions for themselves, Oregon might soon become an anarchic hellhole like Iowa.

[Williamsmith]

Of course the price of a product reflects the labor involved in delivery to the end user. Allowing self-serve operations should be reflected in a lower cost to the consumer which is indeed something to be excited about.
I wonder what Oregon has against the rest of the state, continuing to deny them that option?

I was wondering about some of the same things but it seems that Oregon enacted this no one pumps their own law way back in the FDR days about the same time they made marijuana smoking illegal. It was so that filling station attendants could keep their jobs and not be phased out by money grabbing pump your own station owners.

This time around, they have legalized pot smoking and only grudgingly permitted pump your own in Such rural unpopulated counties that gas station attendants might not see a customer in a full midnight shift. Turns out there is probably no risk of attendants being phased out because rural gas station owners can’t justify replacing their pumps with expensive credit card reading state of the art pumps.

Now, New Jersey.......there’s a state that definitely needs to teach their citizens how to get smelly gasoline on their fingers.

[catherine]

Now, New Jersey.......there’s a state that definitely needs to teach their citizens how to get smelly gasoline on their fingers.

No, thank you! I like being able to stay in my nice, climate-controlled car and let someone else do the work. Although I feel very bad for the people pumping gas these past couple of weeks. I'm just glad I'm not one of them!

[jp1]

Of course the price of a product reflects the labor involved in delivery to the end user. Allowing self-serve operations should be reflected in a lower cost to the consumer which is indeed something to be excited about.

One would think so, but anyone who has purchased gas in NY and NJ is well aware that gas in NJ is actually cheaper despite the fact that NJ is all full service. So I thought maybe the gas tax in NY is significantly higher. According to wikipedia the difference is $.0678 per gallon. A quick search on gasbuddy of current prices in Trenton and Albany, two relatively small cities that don't have comparable non-red-hot real estate costs turned up the following:

Trenton:
Several non name brand gas stations ranging in the $2.39 - $2.45 price range
Name brand gas stations (Exxon/Conoco, etc) in the $2.69 - $2.74 range

Albany:
No discernable difference in price between generic and branded stations.
Cheapest single station $2.52
Median: around $2.58 - $2.60
Most expensive single station $2.85

Adding 7 cents to the full service NJ prices to account for the tax difference puts Trentonians exactly in the range that Albanians are paying for self service. And if people in both cities search out the cheapest option the Trentonian actually comes out ahead.