Cordslash wrote:I have never ever pumped my own petrol. Into my own, or any rental car.
It's actually illegal in South Africa. Only bona fide Petroleum Workers Union members are allowed to do it.
Because if we have self service stations (again, illegal) then tens of thousands of petrol attendants may lose their jobs.
So the price of petrol takes that into consideration.
And we get to sit in our cars while people pump petrol for us, check our water and oil, and clean our windows with squeegees.
Not a bad arrangement all things considered.
I have a very dim view of unnecessary regulations intended to protect a small number of jobs, of which this is a prime example. Incidentally, this reminds me of an old joke, often attributed as a real quote to Milton Friedman but older than that. I first heard it as a Soviet joke so that's the version I'll tell.
A Soviet economic advisor is visiting China, and is taken on a tour of the public works projects. He notices that machines are almost absent everywhere and people are using hand tools like handsaws and shovels. Finally, at one project the Soviet comments that the project would go a lot faster with a few bulldozers and steamrollers.
His Chinese guide turns to him aghast and says "if we used machines thousands of people would be out of a job on this one project alone!"
"My apologies," says the Soviet, "I thought you were trying to build a highway. If it's jobs you want you should take away their shovels and give them spoons."