The Unicorn State

[wufwugy]

Watch from 17:24 to 20:16

[wufwugy]

How government wrecked the gas can.

https://lfb.org/how-government-wrecked-the-gas-can/

[MadMojoMonkey]

Video in OP (at least recommended time stamp) is legit.

The article in the 2nd post is based on total ignorance of how remarkably poisonous gasoline aerosol is.

Gasoline MSDS

Bottom of first page and top of 2nd page are fairly important areas to note.

I'm no doctor, but it seems like bad public health policy to have everyone driving cars, therefore likely to be spending a few minutes a week at a gas station, inhaling cancer-causing fumes. Seems better to have the people not inhale cancer-fumes.

The gas tanks ARE vented, but the vent is a carbon filter that allows the fuel in the tank to expand and contract with temperature changes and to allow the engine to pull fuel when running. The carbon filter absorbs hydrocarbons in the gasoline, and eliminates the smell from a straight vent hose. These vents are not designed for the rapid displacement of air* during refueling. Any modern gas station has a vapor reclamation sleeve that you have to press tightly against the lip of the fuel port in order to activate the pump. The nozzle you pump with is small compared to the fuel port on your car (despite the tiny opening at the top, designed to prevent you from pumping the wrong fuel in your car). This is designed to provide adequate venting during the refueling process.

* It's air and gasoline vapor.

[wufwugy]

I don't think he's talking about tanks at gas stations. It's about the small portable cans.

[wufwugy]

When I first heard about restrictions on cans being the reason why pouring now is such a hassle compared to when I was a kid, I assumed the restrictions might be due to vapors, but the article and other stuff I read state the restrictions are to prevent spillage, so I lol'd since spillage is now a common occurrence. Well, except for when I use an old can.

[MadMojoMonkey]

Oops.

[OngBonga]

It's obviously not about spillage, wtf? That's like making holes in it to prevent leakage.

I'd create my own fucking vent. Hot piece of metal, burn right through the plastic.

Fuck you, stupid regulations.

[wufwugy]

To say the government spends money like a drunken sailor is to insult a drunken sailor because at least the drunken sailor spends his own money.

Never heard that before. Made me lol

[wufwugy]

As much as I love free market capitalism, I also think it is terrible. Humans are evolved for a structure full of restrictions, yet sufficient enough freedom and resource development subverts the restricting structure. It's like how Nietzsche believed that Christianity was its own downfall, since Christianity allows for sufficient freedom, which allows for freedom from Christianity, which has created societies that were built on Christian ideals thwarting those ideals.

An example of a reason I think free market capitalism is also terrible is that it provides for charlatans to gain tremendous power. People like Jimmy Kimmel, Alex Jones, Al Sharpton, Keith Olbermann -- total charlatans. They're playing characters. They're lying because it gets them audience and status and resources.

Free market capitalism has trade offs. It has remarkably reduced the amount of suffering that comes through hunger, disease, and war. It has remarkably increased the amount of luxury and entertainment in the world. But it has also provided for mobs of delusional people manipulated by charlatans.

Is free market capitalism a net benefit to the world? The answer is probably an unequivocal yes. But it's not perfect. At the very least, it has embedded in its elementary principles a way to correct for the unintended negatives that arise from greater freedom and greater resources.

[MadMojoMonkey]

I think you posted using the wrong account. This is the "All hail our lord and savior Free Market Capitalism. Amen." account.


I'm not sure I can get behind the assertion that charlatans gain disproportionate power in free market economies than in other economies.
It's more likely that in a free market, the charlatans have equal opportunity with the honest folks. In more totalitarian economic systems, the amount of charlatanism tends to be extremely high or low to match whatever is the current ruling authority.

[wufwugy]

I think you posted using the wrong account. This is the "All hail our lord and savior Free Market Capitalism. Amen." account.


I'm not sure I can get behind the assertion that charlatans gain disproportionate power in free market economies than in other economies.
It's more likely that in a free market, the charlatans have equal opportunity with the honest folks. In more totalitarian economic systems, the amount of charlatanism tends to be extremely high or low to match whatever is the current ruling authority.

An irony might be that it could be that the successes of free market capitalism could usher in sustainable totalitarianism. Without the successes of capitalism, there would be a lot of suffering but also the human world would be mostly decentralized and primitive. But with capitalism, we essentially solve all the problems that our biology has adapted to fight. The effectiveness of free market capitalism may be responsible for the naive populace giving up its freedom to total rule.

I don't know where I stand on this. I see both things. I see antifragility in people such that beneficial ideas grow. But I also see growth of ignorance in people such that they believe a centralized political elite making decisions for them is a good idea.