Oregon Lifts Ban on Self-Service Gas Stations, Only to Discover People Don’t Know How to Pump Their Own Gas

Want proof that the nanny state creates incapable humans? Look no further.

In Oregon and New Jersey, getting gas hasn’t simply been a matter of pulling up to a station, sliding your debit card, and scrolling through the newsfeeds on your phone while the gas pumps.  Instead, these two states banned self-service gas stations.  I’ve always found it bizarre and insulting that I’m prohibited from pumping my own gas while traveling in these states.

On January 1st, however, Oregon counties with 40,000 residents or fewer are now allowed to pump their own gas, even though — according to The Daily Caller — “full-service gas stations have been the norm since 1951.”

God bless Oregon for its expansion of freedom!  (Now, only New Jersey keeps us from exercising this basic human task.) Though I’m all in favor of full service stations — if the marketplace supports it — it’s incomprehensible and unAmerican for a state to regulate its citizens in this way.

However, many Oregonians aren’t happy. A CBS affiliate in Medford, Oregon asked its Facebook fans what they thought about the change… and here are just a couple of the responses:

“I don’t even know HOW to pump gas and I am 62, native Oregonian…..I say NO THANKS! I don’t want to smell like gasoline!”

and

“It is safer for people, if a station attendant does the service. The only advantage of pumping the gas yourself, would be paying a few cents less a gallon. Getting older, and being disabled, I’d rather have the help!”

You got that?

While young adults through seniors have been pumping their own gas in forty-eight states for decades, many Oregonians believe they’re incapable of this mundane task.  One Facebook commenter put it best: “Oregon is full of mentally defective, full grown children.”

Exactly.  America is supposed to be a nation of self-governing citizens, not people who hyperventilate over the sight of a gas station.

When government erodes freedom, it also infantilizes its citizens.

Glad to see one state fighting back!

Hat Tip: The Daily Caller

Image Credit: Pixabay