CONSPRACY THEORY?

[chuck]

Partial eidetic memory. Better with images than text. I can remember faces but I have a hard time with the names associated with them, always did. I do pretty well with voices too.

A lot of this is also formal training. My first "job" in high school was working at the local public library as a "page". A couple of us joked about working our way up to a "chapter" if we really stuck with it !

My "career" jobs at the US Army Corps of Engineers and the University of Michigan College of Engineering relied heavily on the ability to rapidly find and evaluate information. We were data mining before there was an internet and a fair amount of the actual data was still in paper/image form. You had to understand the indexing systems and how the indexes related to each other. The goal was to find the ten nuggets you were looking for and that you could paw through by hand out of the tens of thousands of "records" that were actually stored as 1.1 million pictures/images on microfilm.


Roger, you're very welcome.


Roy, I agree completely, it's complicated.


Robert, our gas taxes are among the highest of the Great Lakes states and most of it isn't even going to fix the roads which is why they are literally falling apart.

Mitch, thanks for the kind words.

[E7]

In pa. we pay 58 cents a gallon gas tax. Plus 18.4 cents federal tax a gallon. Don't just blame OPEC for high prices. Our taxmen make as much as OPEC does.

I was aware the state tax was a nice hunk of change, but wasn't exactly sure what they were gouging us. The lowest gas price i can remember was Gulftane, Gulf Oils cheapest slop (can't remember the octane) at 29/9 a gallon. Sort of dates me!

[chuck]

My mom used to take the station wagon across the border into Jersey when we were kids and give the attendant $2. That bought 8 gallons of gas, aka about a 1/2 tank. I can't even get a full gallon of gas for the lawnmower for that! Cest le vie.

[robert.]

Some of PA.'s gas tax goes to fund state workers pension. Some goes to subsidize public transportation.(Help keep a poorly managed business afloat).

[E7]

Partial eidetic memory. Better with images than text. I can remember faces but I have a hard time with the names associated with them, always did. I do pretty well with voices too.

Can't say i'm surprised. You are very quick and adept at presenting your arguments, while I tend to plod along on my merry way. My memory is pretty fair, but sometimes retrieval speed is a bit slow. Another factor is the older I get, the less I tend to give a sh*t about things. I think I might also be a bit dyslexic (did I spell that correctly? ). Whatever the case, I figured the topic would provoke some lively discussion. As for Government and Big Business, I don't trust either one as I have worked for both, and observed their methodology. I suppose I could have done better, but I wasn't much into as* kissing.

Despite all your arguments and figures (remember GIGO) I still think (borrowing words from Willy the Shaky ) "Theres something Rotten in Denmark"

Robert, our gas taxes are among the highest of the Great Lakes states and most of it isn't even going to fix the roads which is why they are literally falling apart.

Are you sure you aren't living in PA?


I made a trip to Ypsilanti a few years back, which represents most of what saw of the GLS. I thought lower Michigan was very nice. Never got into Meeechigan where they talk funny!

Rich

[Mitch]

quote "goes to public transportation". Grrrrr! For every single gas tax increase in Pa., Public Transportation is always named as one of the recipients. Pennsylvania now has the highest state fuel tax in the nation, (unless California just superceeded us). Most of that money goes to mainly Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Pittsburgh gets well over (an extra) 100 million a year to subsidize the Port Authority Transit, even while they raise rates and cut routes, and get money from Allegheny County. And why? Because they have union drivers who are making over $125 grand per year. I've seen bus drivers pulled off the road in a wide spot, or parked under a bridge, sitting there reading the newspaper. Just goes to show that I made the wrong career move 46 years ago when I got out of the Navy!

[E7]

My mom used to take the station wagon across the border into Jersey when we were kids and give the attendant $2. That bought 8 gallons of gas, aka about a 1/2 tank. I can't even get a full gallon of gas for the lawnmower for that! Cest le vie.

My Mom was a BIG spender: Her standard order was $3 worth. First family car was a 41 Caddy Club Coupe, 3 on the tree. I don't think that gas gauge needle ever saw the "F". I was born in late '47, so that gives you an idea of the age of the Caddy. We were not wealthy!

That $2.63/9 a gallon I mentioned is the cheapest I can recall for quite a while!

[E7]

quote "goes to public transportation". Grrrrr! For every single gas tax increase in Pa., Public Transportation is always named as one of the recipients. Pennsylvania now has the highest state fuel tax in the nation, (unless California just superceeded us). Most of that money goes to mainly Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Pittsburgh gets well over (an extra) 100 million a year to subsidize the Port Authority Transit, even while they raise rates and cut routes, and get money from Allegheny County. And why? Because they have union drivers who are making over $125 grand per year. I've seen bus drivers pulled off the road in a wide spot, or parked under a bridge, sitting there reading the newspaper. Just goes to show that I made the wrong career move 46 years ago when I got out of the Navy!

Those two cities RUN this state! As they vote, so goes PA.

[robert.]

I pay to subsidize bus fares. I cant find a bus to ride to save my life.

[chuck]

UP is pretty strange. Only state with a population plurality of Finnish descent and a good smattering of other Scandinavians . Probably all that snow and fir trees made em fell like they never left home. We got the UP from Wisconsin in a three way land swap deal with Ohio. Wisconsin lost the UP (They were still a territory at the time and didn't get much say in the matter) and Michigan ceded "The Toledo Strip" to Ohio. At the time Ohio thought they got the better deal because no one knew about the mineral and forestry riches of the UP. Lower Michigan was still heavily forested and no one realized the full value of all that white pine or of the fertile soil and relatively flat ground it covered.

I'm a transplant. Born and raised in the NY metro area and came to Michigan to go to college. Loved the state and decided to stay. Great people and a really pretty place to live and a great place to raise a family. Kids moved out because of the nature of their work. They live in Southern California because that's where their jobs are. They do relate the occasional tale of someone in their business commenting on their "midwest values". Overall it should be taken as a compliment even if it isn't always presented as such.

Winter's are a bit long and harsh and spring can literally be one afternoon. We thought about moving after we both retired but we can't find anyplace else that's as nice or reasonably affordable. It's not just THE Great Lake state (all but Lake Ontario form part of our borders), it's a great state, period.

[E7]

The winters will keep me from mounting an invasion! Seems to me there was a fellow on one of these forums name of Lars, and his tag line was on the order of: Lars from Meeeechigan where there are two seasons: Winter and Road Building!

[HONDO74]

State Gasoline Tax Rates as of July 2018
https://taxfoundation.org/state-gas-tax ... july-2018/

Pennsylvania’s gas tax rate is highest at 58.7 cents per gallon, followed by California (55.22 cpg) and Washington (49.4 cpg). The lowest gas tax rate is found in Alaska at 14.65 cents per gallon, followed by Missouri (17.35 cpg) and Mississippi (18.79).

I am in Missouri and we just voted down a 10 cent gas tax increase.

Regular gas in my neck of the woods was $2.31 today. It has been coming down for several weeks. It was up to $2,55

[rogruth]

Very interesting.
Regular gas here in Pembroke is $2.79.
The lowest price I can remember is in 1941 @ .07 a gallon.
The least I ever paid was in 1959 when regular gas was $.19
and there was a local gas "war" and it was down to $.11.
These prices were in Ohio. I have omitted the 9/10.
In the early 1970s prices went from @ $.30 to @ $.50 overnight.

[HONDO74]

Saudi says to cut oil output as producers discuss price dip
https://news.yahoo.com/saudi-says-cut-o ... 35482.html

Abu Dhabi (AFP) - Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude exporter, said Sunday it will cut oil output from next month, as major producers held a key meeting to discuss shoring up sliding prices.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih announced the kingdom was cutting its supplies by 500,000 barrels per day from December.

But Falih said ahead of the meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC key producers that there was not yet consensus on a broader output cut.

Oil prices have shed a fifth of their value in just one month after surging to a four-year high in early October, driven by a combination of factors centred on higher supply and fears of sluggish demand.