Granted a certain Phalanx editor hasn’t spent much time in New Jersey, usually the amount of time it took to travel from Newark airport to NYC, but surely there is such a thing as self service gas stations somewhere in the state of New Jersey? According to a report in USA Today, residents of New Jersey haven’t had the option of self-service gas stations in nearly 60 years…surely they jest. What manner of socialist state control is it that the government dictates how we must refill a car’s gas tank?

Recently, NJ Governor Jon Corzine, proposed introducing self-service refueling stations along the NJ turnpike, the response from the public was a categorical NO…are the people in New Jersey this lazy…In response to the public outcry, the governor dropped the idea, noting that there are more important issues to consume the government’s time…Oregon also bars self-service as well (the only 2 states to do so).

What is the thinking behind such mettlesome legislation? Are the citizens of Oregon and New Jersey intellectually incapable of understanding the complexities of using a gas pump? The governor of Oregon argued that his state would not consider changing, noting that there was no reason to throw people out of work…so in other words the citizens of his state are forced to pay higher prices solely to keep some mindless autonomons employed in a completely dead-end and merit less job. Critics of the self-service scheme also contend that it would impose a hardship on the elderly and could lead to accidents as unskilled drivers attempt to fill their tanks…
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-05-16-nj-gas_x.htm