Wait in line an hour for gas

What's a typical fill-up? 50 liters? 60? At a difference of 6 cents a liter, that's $3.60 saved. For a minimum-wage worker that's probably close to break-even. And easier than actual work. For a 50-gallon fill it's only $3 saved.

Just glanced at the article. Guess they're not saving much after all, if they have to leave their engine running.

Maybe they're bored, and waiting in a gas line is viewed as cheap entertainment.

 

From kindergarten all the way into college not a single math course I took ever presented math as it applies to life. Yes, some of the word problems were "real world scenarios" but the focus of the problems were precise numerical answers not a general recognition of how statistical and proportional relationships aid navigation of life's complexities. I finished my adolescent schooling in the early '70s so can't speak to what's getting taught today but observing things like this and other indications of an appalling general mathematical ignorance tells me that that critical component of education is still absent. It's no wonder we get swindled so easily so often and so widely.

 

10 cents difference is around my breakpoint for going to a certain gas station.. and that's really more psychological than anything. (Remember 10 cents/liter is equivalent to 38 cents/gal for USA)

But I don't wait more than 1 car for gas, unless I'm really out, or on the turnpike.

 

That's two lines too long for a haiku.

 

Flash back to the '70s. :huh:

 

I'd queue 6 hours to get petrol that cheap

 

Let me take a try at it:

People wait an hour for gas.
Are these people on drugs?
I would not wait an hour to save a dime a liter.

Okay, so the syllable count is wrong for a haiku. It's a free-verse haiku.

 

Excellent point. For all the complaints over the years that math 'doesn't mean anything', you'd think the system could have been improved by now. I was lucky enough to have a few very progressive teachers who let some of the students contribute their own questions. My favourite was an option D for an investment scenario that involved putting the money in the bank and going to sit on the beach. Another was working as an electrician straight out of high school and skipping University altogether. Some of the question's numbers got changed after that for some strange reason.

Every shopping trip with me was a learning opportunity for my kids. "Which is the better deal?" is an everyday question. It's painfully obvious that far too many of us have no idea how to answer it.

Not where he comes from.

 

I have a hard enough time justifying returnable cans and bottles. I return them, because that's the right thing to do for our resources, but at 10 cents apiece my billable rate exceeds the refund. I would be money ahead to throw away the returnables and do some billable work.

Wait that long for gas? No way.

Tom

 

the value of time as money seems to evade a lot of people.

 

It's pretty big in business school. So big, just for a little balance, I had to get this on a t shirt:

War is Peace
Ignorance is Strength
Freedom is Slavery
Time is Money​

Maybe I'm getting worse, but looking back on it, I'm amazed such a subversive lefty made it through with his soul and sanity mostly intact.

 

Me too. It's the stuff of dreams. Imagine if a petrol station over here offered its prices at Canadian or US just for one day! There'd be queues (love using that word on here) for miles and miles, though they'd probably sell out within an hour or two.

Please Lord, why can't this happen? ray2:

 

The reason nobody thought you were subversive is that they agreed with ALL the statements on your shirt.

I've told this story here but it's been a couple of years:

A long time ago I had a t-shirt that said: "NUKE A GODLESS COMMUNIST GAY BABY SEAL FOR CHRIST." I was sitting on a park bench waiting for a friend when an elderly couple came by, walking slowly arm in arm. They saw me, turned, stared at my shirt for a long minute, and then the woman said, in a very friendly old-lady voice: "Oh. You love the lord. That's nice."

I kept a straight face, but I never wore the t-shirt again. I gave it to my mother who took it to Nicaragua in a clothing donation. I'll bet some devout Catholic wore it until it wore out, without ever knowing what it said or what it meant.

 

I run into the same issue, but soon I found myself changing my purchasing choices (or eliminating them). I started solving the issues at the front end, not the back end.....but only because spending extra time and money correctly disposing the waste properly forced me to think. [Example-It's a pain to dispose used oil properly, so I use the best synthetic/sampling to minimize waste handling by using oil for 20k miles, not 5k miles.]

The gas line problem I know how to solve.

 

It may not be haikuable, so let's try

there once was a man from Nantucket
went to get gas in a bucket
waited an hour
began to get sour
with bucket on head he said **** it!

 

Yup. Readers over a certain age should remember, either personally or from news reports, many cases where drivers had to wait even longer to get gas at any price.

 

When presented with a choice, I head for the most expensive station (side benefit - usuall the shortest lines and the cleanest, best facility where the pumps all work, it is well lit, they take my credit card and the window squeegie is not moldy). The last thing I want to do is put downward pressure on the price of gasoline! Of course when you buy gas five or six times per year it doesn't count for much, but I do what I can!