Despite the “Taxachusetts” reputation, Massachusets ranks from seventh to twenty-third in per-capita tax burdern among the US states, depending on how you do the ranking (particularly whether you average in taxes paid by businesses instead of individuals.)
Most people would be surprised by the US’s rank, too: most Americans believe their taxes are incredibly high. (Of course, we don’t get universal health care for our taxes, either).
When I was a new driver and we still had some mixed (self/full) service gas stations around the price for Full Service was ~.10/g higher than Self Service. That .10/g would presumably pay for the attendant. This was in the mid 80’s and gas was still just above and below $1/g so that was not an insignificant amont. I don’t think I ever shelled out the extra cash to have someone else pump the gas.
I forget why, but when my friend and I were about 15 we were deciding which way to walk to get to the East side of town. It was about 9AM.
Me: We need to head this way, going towards the sun.
Friend: Why?
Me: To go East.
Friend: The sun is in the East?
Me: In the morning, yes.
Friend: Well, which direction will be tomorrow morning?
Oh, I knew the reason. No one was more upset than NYers who fill up in Jersey when there was talk of increasing the taxes to cover shortfalls. I’m surprised by the PA number, because where I visit PA (near Philly), which is mostly self-serve, stations have competitive (and on rare occasions lower) prices than the portion of NJ I pass to get there. That would lead me to believe that manning gas pumps leads to about an 18¢ per gallon price increase (small sample size, anecdotal data, etc. apply).
And, like you, if I know I’m passing through NJ, I’ll run the tank down to fumes before entering, fill up, and then top off before leaving.
Nope, it’s not bull, it is a fact. I live in Oregon where an attendant is required and the price of gas is lower than accross the river in Washington where you have to pump your own. Oregon prices are much lower than in California. Look at the price of gas in New Jersey compared to the surrounding states, also lower.
The impression that having a gas attendant raises the price of fuel at the pump cannot be supported by any actual facts.
AAA gas prices by state:
Between the varying taxes and vastly different levels of land rent and general business costs (including labor itself), a list of gas prices by state doesn’t mean anything. (I’m from Oregon, BTW.)
This was all explained above. It’s largely a difference in taxes, and your own gas price chart makes it clear that an attendant does, in fact, raise the price of fuel.
California: Average Price Per Gallon for Regular: $3.038, Gas Taxes: 65 cents
Washington: $2.89, 55.9 cents
Oregon: $2.806, 43.4 cents
Kansas: $2.619, 43.4 cents
Idaho: $2.702, 43.4 cents
Where do you think much of the difference comes in between Oregon and Kansas or Idaho, which have the same gas tax? The attendant.
Some of the price difference is due to pipeline and distribution isn’t it?
Yep, and rent and so on, which is why I said “largely”.
check - I missed the qualifier. Thanks!
It’s funny to read about people travelling to a different state to fill up for gas. If you live in the middle of Texas, it’s not possible to reach another state without filling up again at least once.
Yeah, I’m originally from Texas, and traveling to another state was a rare event when I lived there.
Now that I live in New England, I can drive through a half-dozen states in just a few hours driving.
Reminds me of one of the reasons I gave when Europeans asked me why I was so excited to be over there. I pointed out that say you’re in Berlin – you can get on a train and seven hours later, you can be in Denmark, or Poland, or the Czech Republic. I get on a train and seven hours later, I’m in Rimouski. I won’t even leave the province for another four hours.
One night I was driving my car when another one pulled up behind me. I reached up and flipped the lever on the rear view mirror to dim their lights. My friend asked why I did that. I told him to dim their headlights because they were in my eyes. He said he always though that lever was used to remove the rear view mirror.
Here in Houston, you can drive more than nine hours & be in…Lubbock. (Forget the train.)
They have slow trains in Europe too.
Not sure if these have been covered – I don’t have time to read the whole thread, nor do a search.
Many folks think Africa is a country.
Many think the main language in Mexico is “Mexican”.
And, disturbingly, I was surprised when a well-educated person close to me was unaware that there are still thousands of very powerful nuclear weapons deployed in the world, mainly in the US and Russia, and that they could be activated quite rapidly, at any time at all, really.
When I moved to the States from England one of the first questions I was asked at school was, “what language do y’all speak in England?” This happened twice.
Now, the askers were 10th graders, but still.
A few years back, there was an especially hilarious episode of the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? where the host Drew Carey slipped on that one.
AFAIK, the Spanish spoken in Mexico is different from the Spanish spoken in Spain. Not enough to be considered an entirely different language, obviously, but there are distinctions. Possibly someone with more than my five words of the language can comment–is it comparable to, say, the difference between American English and British English?
One of my uncles asked my SIL if they have television in her native country of El Salvador.
Then again, he’s pretty much an all-around moron.