Just A Day Trip

My wife and I went on a little day trip up to Greeneville, TN about 50-60 miles north of us to visit an Omish Market and see what they had to offer.  We picked up several handmade items including soup starter kits which was the original reason for driving up there.  While in Greeneville we filled up the car with gasoline as it was $.25/gallon cheaper up there than at home...

So, my first question might be Why?

And, the obvious answer is that city and county taxes are less up there than they are where we live... 

I knew that because when I first moved over to TN from NC, I lived in Greeneville but I did not pay that much attention to local taxes until the Biden Administration and began experiencing a lot of inflation.

And, while $.25/gallon is not much, if you fill up once a week and get 10 gallons that is $2.50/week or $130/year.

For those of us on a fixed income $130 is a lot of money...  we could go out to dinner 4 times in Knoxville and spend less than $150...

If you are lucky enough to have a job or have the desire to even work in the first place, then the money that you spend is not that much of a concern...  I say this because, gasoline prices have doubled in the last year, and while many have cut back on how much they drive, the drivers that I am around have no desire to save money by driving the speed limit.

It does not take a brain surgeon to realize the faster one drives the more gasoline is burned or consumed by the vehicle's engine...  yet, no one wants to slow down.

On the Interstate, our speed limit is 70 and if I want to stay with the pack of cars around me, I need to drive 85-90+.  On rural roads, the speed limit is 55 but if I want to stay with the pack of cars around me, I need to drive 75-85+.  In town, the stop lights and the volume of traffic slows the cars down but if there is little traffic, then the cars don't even come close to the posted speed limit of 35 mph.

Gasoline companies want us to drive fast because we buy more gas and they become more wealthy...  and then we bitch because of all the wealthy people we created by our habits.