The author is incorrect as to why we don't pump our own gas. The primary reason is senior citizens who are not as dexterous do not want to get out of their car, at night and try to maneuver a machine that they don?t fully know how to work.

Of course, this could lend the argument about why we let people that are incapable of pumping their own gas be able to drive, but here we are.

Personally, I prefer having someone else do it. When it?s raining or snowing and there is no cover over the station, I?d rather remain inside my car and have someone else brave the cold.

When i did have a car....I rarely took long distance trips....especially out of state. And the only time i can remember being at a self service station was actually in Manhattan....the Hess(near NYU). I had no idea what i was doing....the clerk(a very kind lady trying not to laugh at my monkey like antics) came to my aide.

I am glad NJ has attendants....cause if it didn't, i can imagine many instances like the gas station scene in Zoolander. ;)

I love that we don't pump our own gas in NJ. How is this a bad thing?? Especially in winter, when it's slushy, and snowing and raining.

New Breed of Credit Card Thieves Target Gas Pumps

Aug. 28, 2013
ABC News

A new breed of credit card thieves is stealing unsuspecting customers' credit card information at gas pumps by installing "skimmer" devices that steal a purchaser's data as quickly as one swipe of a credit card.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/breed-credit ... =20100210&singlePage=true

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/skimm ... ave-gas-stations-20160263

Personally I am glad I dont have to pump my own gas. I tried that in PA and ended up with gas all over my feet, pants and hands. No thank you. I will calmly wait in line for my turn and stay inside my car while someone else does it for me. lol

'Why do people hate to stop for gas in NJ'??

People from other states that live nearby LOVE to get gas in NJ. Why do you see so many NYC cabs filling up outside the Holland Tunnel? Why are all my women friends who live outside NJ jealous that they don't have to pump their own gas?

New Jersey's Insane Ban on Self-Service Gasoline
By Matthew Yglesias | Posted Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013,
Driving up and back to the Mohonk Mountain House for the Slate retreat, my colleague David Weigel had one goal in mind?don't buy gasoline in New Jersey.
And he succeeded. Our northbound refueling took place in New York, and our southbound refueling was in Maryland. Megan Wiegand, driving a separate car was not as lucky, and she needed to stop in New Jersey. Why do people hate stopping in New Jersey for gas? It's simple. Self-service gasoline is illegal in the Garden State, a policy that Oregon also shares. I don't drive enough to have strong feelings about this, but many drivers find it so disconcerting to need to interact with another human being while refueling that they deliberately avoid Jersey gas even though it's cheaper than the gas for sale in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.

But it's the source of this cheap gasoline that makes it especially pernicious. Obviously all else being equal, if you ban self-serve gasoline, you're going to push prices up. New Jersey compensates for this by having an unusually low gasoline tax.
That ends up depriving the state government of a source of revenue that scores unusually well on the economic efficiency scale. It's a consumption tax, which economists generally like. But it also penalizes an environmental externality (burning fuel), and since poor people tend not to own cars, it doesn't have the regressive implications of a sales tax. Maryland is being smart and raising its gasoline tax to save for the future by investing in transportation infrastructure. New Jersey, meanwhile, is stuck in a dysfunctional equilibrium of underinvesting in its infrastructure, underpricing gasoline, and annoying everyone with an inefficient gasoline delivery system.

The idea, presumably, is that this saves jobs. But you could apply that Luddite logic to anything. New Jersey could ban washing machines to create more employment in the maid sector. Yet nobody does that because it would be insane. And it's not as if "gas station attendant" is such a wonderful job that it makes sense to create an industrial policy strategy around maximizing the number of jobs in that particular field.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2 ... he_madness_must_stop.html