You’re not saving anything at the pumps with cheap gas.

Ethanol content tax

If you’re leasing an economy car like a normie, filling it with regular swill for the last half-decade, just as you will for the next half-decade and beyond, you’re unlikely to read the fine print at the gas station. Because moo.

But when you own your own metali – particularly when it’s classic or performance metal – you tend to notice such things.ii It doesn’t take much extrospection to discover that beyond the explicit $0.10 going to the Federalis and $0.1886 going to the provincial socialists on every litre of gas in your tank, there’s also an implicit, longer con at play : fuel system corrosion, degradation of the rubber components of a vehicle’s engine, and decreased fuel economy. All from ethanol.

What do a new fuel tank, new fuel pump, and new fuel lines cost you ? Maybe a grand. What does a new engine or resealing of your existing engine cost you ? Somewhere in the order of $2-4k for regular cars, upwards of $20k if you’re into sleds from Stuttgart. What does a 5-10% decrease in fuel economy cost you ?iii $100-200 per year every year. Amortise these costs over any serious period of ownership, compare them with the prices at the pumps, and you’d be mental to use E-positive-integer anything.

Nevermind just being “corn-free,” you’re not saving money by filling up on the cheap. Then again, you’re not really saving anything, ever, anyways. Is this news ?iv

___ ___ ___

  1. Not to mention your own thoughts.
  2. Even if the causal arrow can’t be drawn here anymore than it can be drawn between the “smart people who listen to Beethoven” or “tall men who are CEOs”.

    What, you think that listening to classical music induces your brain cells to shag and produce more little brain cell babies so that you can have more entrepreneurial ideas on etsy ? Or that giraffes === powerful ?  If that’s seriously all you managed to glean from public school, it’s time to ask ol’ teach for your money back. You got gypped, son.

  3. A 5-10% drop is about what you can expect to see with E10. E5 will be 2-5% less efficient than E0, ie. 100% gasoline.
  4. A relevant and most salient thread from #trilema being :

    Framedragger: alright, more than that: i place higher odds of usd surviving in 2050 if put against btc surviving in 2050. why: a very primitive “age of existence” heuristic. and, i don’t trust EC crypto, like, you know, no-one here does. so not willing to put retirement savings into btc. it adds up, utilities, retirement.
    mircea_popescu: heh. there is ~no chance~ of an usd in 2050.

    asciilifeform: 0 of btc, either, geometric db death.
    mircea_popescu: rather.

    ben_vulpes: the latter at least is fixable.
    mircea_popescu: saving in usd, though. for retirement. this gotta take the cake.

    asciilifeform: ( before mircea_popescu balks — ‘trbi’ ain’t btc )
    mircea_popescu: i didn’t balk.

    asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: nope
    Framedragger: (just to be clear, this is another is/ought, i was doing the “is” (imho) part ^, not “ought”, of course)

    asciilifeform: ‘saving’ dun work
    ben_vulpes: asciilifeform: didn’t you demonstrate that lookup could be got down to o(1)?

    asciilifeform: we had thread
    Framedragger: (also, by ‘usd’ meant a portfolio of different fiats)

    mircea_popescu: tell you what, review what your grandparents earned in usd when they were your age, figure out how well they’d live on it today. there is no such thing as “different fiats”. the chinese made a usd-counerparty-fiat just for the purpose of insulating usg from their economy. in this sense, usd=eur=rmb=etc.
    asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: theoretically. but tx grow in number, and ssd grows no cheaper. likewise memory. also recall the ‘tx replacement’ thread. classical btc has uncorrectable birth defects.

    Framedragger: right, insane inflation. counterpoint “it’s all about timing and location” anecdote (purely for entertainment): dad worked in chocolate factory in u.s. back in ~1991, for 2-3mo.; went home with ~ $1k, bought car and flat. ppp!
    mircea_popescu: and what’s that show ?

    Framedragger: “worked for him!”
    mircea_popescu: that the braindead fiat of the local socialists was going to outlive the at-the-time republic-of-smart-people currency ?

    Framedragger: but yes, saving over multiple decades, different thing *entirely*, of course of course.
    mircea_popescu: ass-backwards logic you got going there.

    Framedragger: true.
    asciilifeform: moreover, there does not exist such a place as from which they won’t steal it. whenever they feel like it.

    mircea_popescu: yes dude, and some kid worked in bitcoin, bought wife and girlfriend. doh. “framedragger’s dad hjad the sense to leave shitistan, worked for dollars in 1991, came back with 1k bought flat, spawned kid, who is too dumb to leave shitistan and work for bitcoin, make 1k, perpetuate the cycle”. is the idea that the family line ends with you or what is this anecdote about ?
    Framedragger: seems like :D nah, yeah, i gettit.

    mircea_popescu: ask your dad about it!
    trinque: I dunno how a kid from .lt thinks whichever govt is everlasting; even the last two cocks that fucked them in the ass withered BUT THE THIRD SHALL STAND

    asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: do you happen to recall when we had the thread re ‘saving’ being a magical-thinking delusion as a concept ?
    mircea_popescu: well, “the made-1k-realpeoplecurrency-bought flat and cheap hooker in socialistan” anecdote has naught to do with “saving”

    […]

    mircea_popescu: the lulz of all fucking time, a grand bought his father a new life 25 years ago ; i just did the household accounting, my petty cash line is a shade over $8`000. that excludes rents like it excludes isp bills or agents on a mission or anything else worth the fucking mention. a grand would buy me half a week’s worth of groceries, taking a girl out or buying her some random dress we saw in the window so she comes out of the shop looking just like the display only better. and he wants to save! if a million dollars buys you a decent meal in another 25 years you should count yourself lucky, and that’s only 2042, 8 more to go to 2050.
    Framedragger: i suppose the alternative is not necessarily “buy up bitcoin” (somehow stuck in mind), but invest in business (and possibly (non-nato, or w/e) real estate). (not against my current plans, just, can’t do all at once (yet) )

    mircea_popescu: yes. the alternative to not being a creature of this world is BEING a creature of this world. nobody said you gotta be a figment of some redditard’s imagination, now did they. there is no such thing as “saving” as alf referenced previous discussion because this “saving” is fundamentally and at its core an anti-concept. “how to be powerless while retaining power”. nigga, wut ? saving works when it’s not saving.

One thought on “You’re not saving anything at the pumps with cheap gas.

  1. […] passive saving isn’t an option, but investing in your connections and your career is. If you stick with that for the next 30 years […]

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