Note the $ in “GA$”. The driver doesn’t think he’s to blame for the high price of gas, despite the laws of supply and demand. The worker doesn’t think he’s to blame for the high price of gas because of the laws of supply and demand (not to mention he probably has no control, being just a peon).
Oh, the dollar sign was essential to the joke?
I had the same interpretation as Arthur, despite not noticing the $ sign.
The joke doesn’t work for me because the panel indicates a supposed symmetry in the illogic, but as Arthur points out, the worker is a peon who has no control over supply or demand.
This was a complete CIDU for me, until I noticed the parallel bubbles leading to the simultaneous thought balloon. Now it’s just a ½ CIDU: It’s clear that the station attendant(*) and the cartoonist are criticizing the SUV owner for insensitive waste. I have no idea what the SUV owner thinks the station attendant is supposed to be guilty of.
P.S. (*) – I have not seen a station attendant (outside of Oregon and New Jersey) for at least 25 years (and I have never seen one in Germany(*). Most of them disappeared shortly after the second gas crisis. There was one station near my high school that stayed exclusively “full service” into the mid to late 80’s, but it was an extreme exception (and had extreme prices, too).
P.P.S. (*) – When I first came here, many stations were still labeled “SB“, for “Selbstbedienung” (“self-service”), to distinguish them from the (no longer existant) stations that were not. I haven’t even seen such a sign in years, because all stations are “SB” now.
As an alternative, I thought it might have had something to do with the height of the attendant. Notice he’s using both hands to hold the pump, is barely a whisker taller than the pump itself, and he had to drag a step-stool out to fill the tank. This must have caused some delay and perhaps an exchange of nasty words between the two. But really, it’s the monstrous, environmentally-unfriendly truck that’s causing the issue, as the attendant’s not so short he couldn’t handle regular-sized cars.
The humour comes from the arrogance and ignorance shown by the driver…perhaps a typical attitude of drivers of these types of vehicles.
Don’t forget – if you win a truck, or anything else, for that matter, you have to pay tax(es) on it. Imagine if you won one of those million-dollar houses; who could afford to? And you can’t sell it ’til you’ve paid the tax(es).
I was once told that the word ‘peon’ is a contraction of ‘being pee’d on’. Probably not, but a good description anyhow.
How often do any of us NOT pump our own gas these days??
Sorry, hadn’t read you before comment above (by me).
Hunh, I just went right to hydrocarbon pollution as the problem.
The vehicle height, on that view, is a stand-in for its size in general and in turn its fuel consumption – as recorded by the front plate motto.
Nearish me there are at least two stations with signs, “We pump all gas”. They have the same kinds of pumps as all of the self-service stations.
And, Bill, I’d say the dollar sign helped reduce confusion as to what the joke was about, rather than being essential.
Am I imagining this, or was there a time during the transition from full- to self-service, when gas stations (no longer known as ‘service stations’, as there isn’t any) had lanes for full service and lanes for self service, with (I think) a difference in prices?
@ Andréa – That’s exactly the way it worked. The difference in price was considerable.
Everybody seems to be working frim the premise that gas-guzzling vehicles are responsible for high gas prices, but that’s just not how it works.
“Everybody seems to be working frim the premise that gas-guzzling vehicles are responsible for high gas prices, but that’s just not how it works.”
No, it’s not the cars, it’s the people who own them and are willing to pay whatever it takes to keep them running.
B.A. Higher demand doesn’t result in higher prices?
Andréa: In principle, you could get a loan for the taxes, by guaranteeing that you would immediately sell the house, and thus have enough money to pay back the loan. Dunno if that would work in practice.
And I guess we’ll never find out, unless a CIDUer wins a house and tries to do this.
The driver doesn’t seem to be concerned about the price at all. I’m going for climate change. He’s driving this monster with “Guzzle” on the license, but he’s not part of the climate change problem.
Particularly appropriate today with a massive hurricane stalled over the Bahamas.
Income taxes aren’t due until the following April, so unless the real estate market is weak, you should have time to sell the house and pay the taxes.
For cars you have a different problem, because you need to register the car before you can drive it on public roads, such, as, say the ones where game shows are filmed and the home you live in, and many states require payment of property tax on the value of the car, not the price you paid for it, with registration.
For big cash prizes, many if not most of the places where you can get those will withhold a piece for the IRS, just like your job does. Just in case you spent the whole thing before the next April came around, and you figured out just how much taxes you owed.
In 2011, we had a record high average gas price in the U.S.; 2012 has been the only higher year than that.
lanes for full service and lanes for self service, with (I think) a difference in prices
Some stations had three levels, with “mini-service” another option. Full-service they did the whole “wash the windshield, check the tires and oil, etc.” while mini-service just pumped gas.
B.A. Higher demand doesn’t result in higher prices?
With gas, price is mostly driven by the supply side. Demand then follows the price. When gas is relatively cheap, people use more with more frequent and longer trips, and buy less efficient vehicles.
Here’s a technical question for Bill. My second post there didn’t post immediately the way the first did. It took a good five minutes or so to appear. There was no indication that it went to moderation. So is it just the case that WordPress is sometimes slow in processing, or did this actually go to moderation and get a quick resolution?
If there was no indication that the comment went into moderation, then my best guess is a traffic jam within WordPress.
I’m pretty sure prices are determined more by geopolitics than by how many men with undersized genitalia are driving Humvees.
Andréa, for all New Jersey’s faults, at least we don’t have to get out of our car to pump our own gas, like the cavemen did.
Really?
Self-serve isn’t allowed in NJ and Oregon, Andréa.
Any particular reason why? Or does service station attendants have a strong union?
“Any particular reason why?”
Bill’s information is slightly out-of-date for Oregon. In most of Oregon’s counties, self-serve IS allowed. It so happens that most of Oregon’s population is concentrated into 5 counties, with some of the counties having more square miles in them than people.
But there’ve been several attempts to switch the Oregon self-serve law, and they get voted down by the population.
NJ may be similar, or totally different.
Well, to be fair, Oregon’s laws don’t concern me much.
In New Jersey, though, any move to change the law is highly unpopular.
My understanding is that most contests with large prizes like cars, homes, etc. will also offer a cash equivalent, so the winner is not “stuck” with a large tax payment over and above the prize. But really, if you take the house, for example, it shouldn’t be that difficult to take out a mortgage to cover the taxes, assuming you have a halfway decent credit score (better take out enough to cover state and property taxes, too.) Of course, with the cash payout, the government will withhold 20% up front. IANATL, but even here, you can still get burned. First, say, with a million $ prize, 20% is not going to be near enough to cover the taxes owed, because you are easily in the 31% (or is it 35% now?) bracket. And second, you are responsible for quarterly estimated tax payments for any income not covered sufficiently by withholding, and come April there are hefty penalties for any shortfall in your estimated/withheld payments. Uncle Sam doesn’t really trust you.
“Well, to be fair, Oregon’s laws don’t concern me much.”
Well, now you know, so when you drive across the country to Portland, you won’t be surprised when you can (must) still pump your own gas in Grant, and Harney and Lake counties (among others). Plan to go during the first week of June. The chance of rain during the week is only 100%, but the Rose Festival has lots of fun. If you insist on visiting in the dry season, AKA “July”, the waterfront blues festival is quite popular, and unlike California, the state is rarely on fire. OK, the part of the state where all the people are aren’t on fire… sometimes they do get close. Popular tourist destination Multnomah Falls is still closed because it was on fire two years ago. Try Silver Falls instead… only a slightly longer drive, and for that one, the parking lot is at the TOP of the falls instead of the bottom. In fact, it’s possible to get dropped off at the top of the falls, take the hike the Silver Falls Trail, and get picked up at the other parking lot. A couple of miles of hiking, but ALL DOWNHILL.
I live about 3000 miles away, now, and all the waterfalls in my new state are located inconveniently at the other end of the state.
You only owe a penalty for underwithholding if you had less withheld than you did the previous year. One-time windfalls will thus never result in a penalty for underwithholding.
I was going to mention New Jersey – I drove through there once, a good many years ago, and it was seriously weird to have someone pumping my gas for me. Self-service has been the norm (at least, where I’ve lived) since I started driving (early 80s). I didn’t know about Oregon.
guero, there is a safe harbor for estimated tax payments. If your withholdings and estimated tax payments are at least 90% of your actual tax, or at least 100% of your previous year’s actual tax (110% for high-income taxpayers), you will not owe a penalty. See IRS Publication 505.
B.A. I don’t see a dichotomy. Much of geopolitics is determined by our need for gasoline.
guero: Why are you comparing 20% to 31% to say that you’re getting burned? Even if 20% isn’t enough to cover the taxes owed, the 20% plus the other 80% of the cash payout is. The only way that you get in trouble is if you assume that the 20% taken by the government up front is enough for all your taxes, spend the rest of the money up before April 15th, and then on tax day realize that you don’t have enough to cover your taxes.
Well, I said I’m NATL. WW, maybe burned was too harsh, I just meant if you relied on the 20% withholding thinking you were covered, you’d still get hit with a big tax bill come April. As for the penalties, all I know is that once my wife and I were retired and we only had estimated payments (no withholding) we got hit with penalties a couple of times (fairly minor, around $20-$40) because our actual taxes were outside the range MiB mentioned. I’d have to go back and look, but it’s probably because our income (and consequently taxes) were lower than the previous year (retirement and all), but the payments didn’t quite hit the 90% mark. Either that, or I shouldn’t trust TurboTax. Which do you think?
But, seriously, you’re saying that if I paid, say, $10,000 in taxes last year, won the lottery, and had a tax bill of $250,000 this year, as long as I had withheld $11,000 there would be no penalty? That doesn’t sound like the IRS I know.
“In fact, most states (and the federal government) automatically withhold taxes on lottery winnings over $5,000.”
And it implies that it’s at the 24% level.
Not just the state lotteries… casinos withhold on big payouts, too.
“But, seriously, you’re saying that if I paid, say, $10,000 in taxes last year, won the lottery, and had a tax bill of $250,000 this year, as long as I had withheld $11,000 there would be no penalty? That doesn’t sound like the IRS I know.”
Absolutely true. See the instructions for line 12b in Worksheet 2-1 in IRS Publication 505. But you had better get the remaining $239,000 to the IRS by next April 15. No exceptions, no excuses. And you’d better watch your withholding extra carefully next year. 110% of this year’s tax is most likely going to be way more than 90% of next year’s tax so you’d better make sure about that 90%, and don’t forget they expect four equal payments, so if you’re going to win the lottery in November you’d better start planning for it in April.
Bill – Robert swears whenever we get gas in NJ as he feels he is paying more than if he could put it in the car himself.
The size of the vehicle does not necessarily indicate its gas usage. We bought a Honda Pilot which was suppose to get 18 miles/gallon. It was lucky to see 14 mpg. We had never had a car before or since that did not get a higher mileage than it was suppose to.
We had bought the Pilot to travel in as we had a 13 year old Astro Van and a 12 year old Blazer S10 and neither were that trusty to take on out of state trips. Since the Blazer was mine, I suggested we get rid of it and get something else large enough to travel in – the PIlot was the result. It did not get the mileage of the Astro or the Blazer.
Later the year that we bought the Pilot was when we had the bed bugs. As a result of same two years later we bought a Class B RV to travel in so we would not need to stay in a hotel. The Class B that we have is a Chevy Express Van which was converted to an RV (very “cozy”) and is listed as heavyweight vehicle on it’s registration. We had expected to get terrible gas mileage with it. It gets 18 mpg – 4 more than the Honda, while physically being around twice the size of the Honda and probably weighing more than twice the weight of the Honda. (After a year I pointed to out to Robert why the heck did we need the Honda at such horrible mileage and we traded it in – almost equal plus sales tax – for a Chevy Equinox, which has its own problems and a class action suit – but mileage is not one of the problems.
I thought that the fellow putting in the gas was upset at having to climb a ladder to do so and the driver thinks that this should not be a problem and the station should not have a problem with needing to put gas in a vehicle this tall.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Note the $ in “GA$”. The driver doesn’t think he’s to blame for the high price of gas, despite the laws of supply and demand. The worker doesn’t think he’s to blame for the high price of gas because of the laws of supply and demand (not to mention he probably has no control, being just a peon).
Oh, the dollar sign was essential to the joke?
I had the same interpretation as Arthur, despite not noticing the $ sign.
The joke doesn’t work for me because the panel indicates a supposed symmetry in the illogic, but as Arthur points out, the worker is a peon who has no control over supply or demand.
This was a complete CIDU for me, until I noticed the parallel bubbles leading to the simultaneous thought balloon. Now it’s just a ½ CIDU: It’s clear that the station attendant(*) and the cartoonist are criticizing the SUV owner for insensitive waste. I have no idea what the SUV owner thinks the station attendant is supposed to be guilty of.
P.S. (*) – I have not seen a station attendant (outside of Oregon and New Jersey) for at least 25 years (and I have never seen one in Germany(*). Most of them disappeared shortly after the second gas crisis. There was one station near my high school that stayed exclusively “full service” into the mid to late 80’s, but it was an extreme exception (and had extreme prices, too).
P.P.S. (*) – When I first came here, many stations were still labeled “SB“, for “Selbstbedienung” (“self-service”), to distinguish them from the (no longer existant) stations that were not. I haven’t even seen such a sign in years, because all stations are “SB” now.
As an alternative, I thought it might have had something to do with the height of the attendant. Notice he’s using both hands to hold the pump, is barely a whisker taller than the pump itself, and he had to drag a step-stool out to fill the tank. This must have caused some delay and perhaps an exchange of nasty words between the two. But really, it’s the monstrous, environmentally-unfriendly truck that’s causing the issue, as the attendant’s not so short he couldn’t handle regular-sized cars.
The humour comes from the arrogance and ignorance shown by the driver…perhaps a typical attitude of drivers of these types of vehicles.
Maybe he accidentally won that truck…
https://www.bugmartini.com/comic/bugfoot/
Don’t forget – if you win a truck, or anything else, for that matter, you have to pay tax(es) on it. Imagine if you won one of those million-dollar houses; who could afford to? And you can’t sell it ’til you’ve paid the tax(es).
I was once told that the word ‘peon’ is a contraction of ‘being pee’d on’. Probably not, but a good description anyhow.
How often do any of us NOT pump our own gas these days??
Sorry, hadn’t read you before comment above (by me).
Hunh, I just went right to hydrocarbon pollution as the problem.
The vehicle height, on that view, is a stand-in for its size in general and in turn its fuel consumption – as recorded by the front plate motto.
Nearish me there are at least two stations with signs, “We pump all gas”. They have the same kinds of pumps as all of the self-service stations.
And, Bill, I’d say the dollar sign helped reduce confusion as to what the joke was about, rather than being essential.
Am I imagining this, or was there a time during the transition from full- to self-service, when gas stations (no longer known as ‘service stations’, as there isn’t any) had lanes for full service and lanes for self service, with (I think) a difference in prices?
@ Andréa – That’s exactly the way it worked. The difference in price was considerable.
Everybody seems to be working frim the premise that gas-guzzling vehicles are responsible for high gas prices, but that’s just not how it works.
“Everybody seems to be working frim the premise that gas-guzzling vehicles are responsible for high gas prices, but that’s just not how it works.”
No, it’s not the cars, it’s the people who own them and are willing to pay whatever it takes to keep them running.
B.A. Higher demand doesn’t result in higher prices?
Andréa: In principle, you could get a loan for the taxes, by guaranteeing that you would immediately sell the house, and thus have enough money to pay back the loan. Dunno if that would work in practice.
And I guess we’ll never find out, unless a CIDUer wins a house and tries to do this.
The driver doesn’t seem to be concerned about the price at all. I’m going for climate change. He’s driving this monster with “Guzzle” on the license, but he’s not part of the climate change problem.
Particularly appropriate today with a massive hurricane stalled over the Bahamas.
Income taxes aren’t due until the following April, so unless the real estate market is weak, you should have time to sell the house and pay the taxes.
For cars you have a different problem, because you need to register the car before you can drive it on public roads, such, as, say the ones where game shows are filmed and the home you live in, and many states require payment of property tax on the value of the car, not the price you paid for it, with registration.
For big cash prizes, many if not most of the places where you can get those will withhold a piece for the IRS, just like your job does. Just in case you spent the whole thing before the next April came around, and you figured out just how much taxes you owed.
In 2011, we had a record high average gas price in the U.S.; 2012 has been the only higher year than that.
lanes for full service and lanes for self service, with (I think) a difference in prices
Some stations had three levels, with “mini-service” another option. Full-service they did the whole “wash the windshield, check the tires and oil, etc.” while mini-service just pumped gas.
B.A. Higher demand doesn’t result in higher prices?
With gas, price is mostly driven by the supply side. Demand then follows the price. When gas is relatively cheap, people use more with more frequent and longer trips, and buy less efficient vehicles.
Here’s a technical question for Bill. My second post there didn’t post immediately the way the first did. It took a good five minutes or so to appear. There was no indication that it went to moderation. So is it just the case that WordPress is sometimes slow in processing, or did this actually go to moderation and get a quick resolution?
If there was no indication that the comment went into moderation, then my best guess is a traffic jam within WordPress.
I’m pretty sure prices are determined more by geopolitics than by how many men with undersized genitalia are driving Humvees.
Andréa, for all New Jersey’s faults, at least we don’t have to get out of our car to pump our own gas, like the cavemen did.
Really?
Self-serve isn’t allowed in NJ and Oregon, Andréa.
Any particular reason why? Or does service station attendants have a strong union?
“Any particular reason why?”
Bill’s information is slightly out-of-date for Oregon. In most of Oregon’s counties, self-serve IS allowed. It so happens that most of Oregon’s population is concentrated into 5 counties, with some of the counties having more square miles in them than people.
But there’ve been several attempts to switch the Oregon self-serve law, and they get voted down by the population.
NJ may be similar, or totally different.
Well, to be fair, Oregon’s laws don’t concern me much.
In New Jersey, though, any move to change the law is highly unpopular.
My understanding is that most contests with large prizes like cars, homes, etc. will also offer a cash equivalent, so the winner is not “stuck” with a large tax payment over and above the prize. But really, if you take the house, for example, it shouldn’t be that difficult to take out a mortgage to cover the taxes, assuming you have a halfway decent credit score (better take out enough to cover state and property taxes, too.) Of course, with the cash payout, the government will withhold 20% up front. IANATL, but even here, you can still get burned. First, say, with a million $ prize, 20% is not going to be near enough to cover the taxes owed, because you are easily in the 31% (or is it 35% now?) bracket. And second, you are responsible for quarterly estimated tax payments for any income not covered sufficiently by withholding, and come April there are hefty penalties for any shortfall in your estimated/withheld payments. Uncle Sam doesn’t really trust you.
“Well, to be fair, Oregon’s laws don’t concern me much.”
Well, now you know, so when you drive across the country to Portland, you won’t be surprised when you can (must) still pump your own gas in Grant, and Harney and Lake counties (among others). Plan to go during the first week of June. The chance of rain during the week is only 100%, but the Rose Festival has lots of fun. If you insist on visiting in the dry season, AKA “July”, the waterfront blues festival is quite popular, and unlike California, the state is rarely on fire. OK, the part of the state where all the people are aren’t on fire… sometimes they do get close. Popular tourist destination Multnomah Falls is still closed because it was on fire two years ago. Try Silver Falls instead… only a slightly longer drive, and for that one, the parking lot is at the TOP of the falls instead of the bottom. In fact, it’s possible to get dropped off at the top of the falls, take the hike the Silver Falls Trail, and get picked up at the other parking lot. A couple of miles of hiking, but ALL DOWNHILL.
I live about 3000 miles away, now, and all the waterfalls in my new state are located inconveniently at the other end of the state.
You only owe a penalty for underwithholding if you had less withheld than you did the previous year. One-time windfalls will thus never result in a penalty for underwithholding.
I was going to mention New Jersey – I drove through there once, a good many years ago, and it was seriously weird to have someone pumping my gas for me. Self-service has been the norm (at least, where I’ve lived) since I started driving (early 80s). I didn’t know about Oregon.
guero, there is a safe harbor for estimated tax payments. If your withholdings and estimated tax payments are at least 90% of your actual tax, or at least 100% of your previous year’s actual tax (110% for high-income taxpayers), you will not owe a penalty. See IRS Publication 505.
B.A. I don’t see a dichotomy. Much of geopolitics is determined by our need for gasoline.
guero: Why are you comparing 20% to 31% to say that you’re getting burned? Even if 20% isn’t enough to cover the taxes owed, the 20% plus the other 80% of the cash payout is. The only way that you get in trouble is if you assume that the 20% taken by the government up front is enough for all your taxes, spend the rest of the money up before April 15th, and then on tax day realize that you don’t have enough to cover your taxes.
Well, I said I’m NATL. WW, maybe burned was too harsh, I just meant if you relied on the 20% withholding thinking you were covered, you’d still get hit with a big tax bill come April. As for the penalties, all I know is that once my wife and I were retired and we only had estimated payments (no withholding) we got hit with penalties a couple of times (fairly minor, around $20-$40) because our actual taxes were outside the range MiB mentioned. I’d have to go back and look, but it’s probably because our income (and consequently taxes) were lower than the previous year (retirement and all), but the payments didn’t quite hit the 90% mark. Either that, or I shouldn’t trust TurboTax. Which do you think?
But, seriously, you’re saying that if I paid, say, $10,000 in taxes last year, won the lottery, and had a tax bill of $250,000 this year, as long as I had withheld $11,000 there would be no penalty? That doesn’t sound like the IRS I know.
From https://taxfoundation.org/lottery-tax-withholding-2019/ :
“In fact, most states (and the federal government) automatically withhold taxes on lottery winnings over $5,000.”
And it implies that it’s at the 24% level.
Not just the state lotteries… casinos withhold on big payouts, too.
“But, seriously, you’re saying that if I paid, say, $10,000 in taxes last year, won the lottery, and had a tax bill of $250,000 this year, as long as I had withheld $11,000 there would be no penalty? That doesn’t sound like the IRS I know.”
Absolutely true. See the instructions for line 12b in Worksheet 2-1 in IRS Publication 505. But you had better get the remaining $239,000 to the IRS by next April 15. No exceptions, no excuses. And you’d better watch your withholding extra carefully next year. 110% of this year’s tax is most likely going to be way more than 90% of next year’s tax so you’d better make sure about that 90%, and don’t forget they expect four equal payments, so if you’re going to win the lottery in November you’d better start planning for it in April.
Bill – Robert swears whenever we get gas in NJ as he feels he is paying more than if he could put it in the car himself.
The size of the vehicle does not necessarily indicate its gas usage. We bought a Honda Pilot which was suppose to get 18 miles/gallon. It was lucky to see 14 mpg. We had never had a car before or since that did not get a higher mileage than it was suppose to.
We had bought the Pilot to travel in as we had a 13 year old Astro Van and a 12 year old Blazer S10 and neither were that trusty to take on out of state trips. Since the Blazer was mine, I suggested we get rid of it and get something else large enough to travel in – the PIlot was the result. It did not get the mileage of the Astro or the Blazer.
Later the year that we bought the Pilot was when we had the bed bugs. As a result of same two years later we bought a Class B RV to travel in so we would not need to stay in a hotel. The Class B that we have is a Chevy Express Van which was converted to an RV (very “cozy”) and is listed as heavyweight vehicle on it’s registration. We had expected to get terrible gas mileage with it. It gets 18 mpg – 4 more than the Honda, while physically being around twice the size of the Honda and probably weighing more than twice the weight of the Honda. (After a year I pointed to out to Robert why the heck did we need the Honda at such horrible mileage and we traded it in – almost equal plus sales tax – for a Chevy Equinox, which has its own problems and a class action suit – but mileage is not one of the problems.
I thought that the fellow putting in the gas was upset at having to climb a ladder to do so and the driver thinks that this should not be a problem and the station should not have a problem with needing to put gas in a vehicle this tall.