Ravenwood - 12/16/02 10:14 PM
You know those air pumps at the gas station that cost a quarter and run for about three minutes? Well, on my way to work this morning, I heard a radio story about a certain Ohio town mandating that those be 'free'. There is already a law on the books mandating that all service stations have an air pump. Now they want to mandate that owners give the air away for 'free'.
Just who do they think is going to pay for this? The economist in me tells me that I've got to play the 'No Free Lunch' card. The fact remains that you cannot legislate economics. Someone has to pay for the expense of purchasing the air pumps, maintaining them, running them with electricity, etc. Any business, by simple definition, doesn't hold wealth. That means either the shareholders (or owner), the employees, or the customers end up picking up the tab in the form of lower shareholder equity, lower wages, or higher prices.
It seems that Legislators are always looking to give stuff away for 'free'. The problem is that it is impossible. In fact, there is absolutely nothing legislators can do to eliminate the cost. All they can do is simply defer the cost to someone else. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.
UPDATE: The AP picked up the story.
There are a few free air hoses around town, and sometimes they even work.
The Shell-owned convenience stores charge half a buck, but if you buy your gas there at the same time, it's free. Doesn't sound too arduous to me.
"Doesn't sound too arduous"?? Is that the standard now? That the government can make any regulation imposing any costs it wants on anyone as long as the cost is not too great? What happened to the Constitution? And individual rights? And property rights? And what relation does this regulation have to the proper, limited functions of government? This sort of thinking is a legacy of the Public Accommodations section of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964. Tyranny moves by small degrees unless resisted at every point by free men.
Posted by: Robert Speirs at December 17, 2002 2:29 PMIn California, all stations must have free air and water. It is very nice. Who wants to be screwed because they might not have a quarter in their car and it's overheating. If I have to pay 1/10 of a cent per gallon more, so be it.
Posted by: The Rust One at December 17, 2002 4:55 PMWell, Ruston, perhaps we should mandate that gas stations provide a free battery for anyone who needs it.
After all, who wants to be screwed because they don't have $100 on them to get a new battery? Or is that already the law in California?
Posted by: Ravenwood at December 17, 2002 6:42 PMWell, it doesn't sound too arduous to me, although it's apparently far too complex for the powers that be in the referenced Ohio town. I don't have a problem with paying my own way, and Shell doesn't apparently have a problem with selling air at 50 cents to people who don't buy their gas. An eminently sensible arrangement, I think, and one which would not be enhanced by legislative action.
Posted by: CGHill at December 17, 2002 9:08 PMIf a case could be made that people don't generally fill up their tires as often as they should, and that this is because they don't want to pay the money, and that therefore cost-shifting the air might save lives... I'd be open to hear the arguement.
Problem is, no one's bothered to make it.
Laws are a necessary evil: They are necessary, but because they involve the threat of violence (in its broadest sense) by society against an individual, they are also evil.
That is why if the difference between having a law or not is negligable, then there should not be a law in that instance.
Posted by: Ryan Waxx at December 22, 2002 12:43 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
