Hacker News Reader

Comment by hueving | Hacker News Reader

They would be better off paying people to dig ditches and refill them. Making idiotic middle-man positions like gas pumpers just slows down innovation in industries and pisses off people who don't like to be restricted from performing their own trivial tasks.

View on HN

Putting more money into infrastructure both fixes the ailing infrastructure, of which there is a lot, and creates new jobs. I feel like this is a no brainer so perhaps I am missing something. I would gladly be enlightened if anyone has more insight!

You're missing the fact that one political party believes that government spending is inherently wrong and that any government debt is unacceptable (until they are in power).

There were endless political debates over this after the Great Recession when money and bonds were cheap and unemployment was high. Significant investments are needed in infrastructure (I think that was even a Trump campaign promise?) across the US but the issue has become unnecessarily politicized.

Oregon does this I believe, them or Washington. While on vacation I was always irate at the pump because I had to wait for someone that started the pump then ran off, so if it stopped prematurely and early we had to wait for that person to run back.

The canonical example of a state that does this is New Jersey. I don't live there, but I've driven through it on occasion, and it's always jarring to suddenly not be allowed to do so something so basic (and that you've done thousands of times) as inserting a gas nozzle into a fueling port and depress the trigger.

Oregon. But we just loosened the rules a teny tiny bit, so if it's after hours, in a rural area you can do it yourself:

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2015/12/29/driver...

Is Oregon. I still remember my shock at the pump station after being told that I'm not qualified to handle explosive substances (gas)...

NJ does this--though the prices at the pump are still lower than in a number of nearby states. I think there have been occasional attempts to change the law so that people can pump their own gas, but it has always failed.

Innovation at petrol pumps stopped about 50 years ago - paying at the pump briefly looked like a brave new frontier but it's actually quicker to go in and pay.

I have never once in my life thought going in to pay was quicker and I'm interested to know why you think that.

I don't think it's quicker, but I go in and pay because I'm paranoid about the card skimmers

You're not even OP!

I'm in New Zealand in case that matters. The interface is horrendous - and it has numerous checks it requires before you are allowed to pay and each step takes a long time to accept, and it hates "fill" as an option (rather than say $50) - Do you have any discount receipts (from supermarkets)? Have you an AA card? Do you authorise payment up to X? Are you sure? Hold being placed... Waiting to process.... If you pick up the pump at any stage before it's ready it all breaks.

Especially now that some pumps accept NFC (Apple Pay etc), I have no idea how it could be faster to go inside.

This is clearly a better part of the petrol pump world than mine.

It's rare here too (Bay area), but one day my wife forgot her wallet at home, and had to find a station that took Apple Pay in order to fill up to get home again. She found one and is now an Apple Pay convert.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com