Survival Arts

The horror of pumping your own gas in Oregon

I just got back today from an enjoyable and enlightening trip to Oregon from California. I'm about to run off to a New Year's party now, so I'll make this short. While I really enjoyed the fact that there's no retail sales tax in Oregon, they do have an annoying law prohibiting the self-service dispensing of gasoline at filling stations. On my last fueling stop before leaving the state, I engaged the angry old man in charge of fills in a discussion about the issue. He bluntly admitted that it's a makework scheme for people like himself who've lost their jobs in the timber industry.