Sunday, November 4, 2012

NJ Gas Rationing Plan Manifestly Insane


A big storm requires stupid government.  

Gawker notes that NYTimes reports that NJ announced that to deal with post-Sandy (price controls-induced) gas shortages, people with license plates ending in a letter can fill up on odd-numbered calendar days, whereas people with license plates ending in a number can fill up on even-numbered days.  

But all NJ license plates (aside from vanity plates and other rare exceptions) end in letters.  So now, every other day everyone in the beleaguered state will attempt to get gas.  The next day, no one will.  And so on, until the plan is inevitably abandoned as insane.

UPDATE: Or is it merely the Times that's confused?  One NJ driver says the plan hinges on the final number on your license plate, no matter how your license number ends.  Well, I'm staying in NY until things are back to normal, and then some.

2 comments:

Thane Eichenauer said...

Yep, yep, yep.

This article explains the still insane but understandable system.

It all goes to show how important prices are and how little Mr. Christie and Mr. Cuomo think of private property and the right to sell that private property for as much (or as little) as you choose too.

Anonymous said...

So insane Bloomberg will now try it in NYC, http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/NYC-Long-Island-go-to-even-odd-gas-sale-plan-4020966.php

If they let market work (or permit so-called "gouging"), it will return to normal as oil prices did when Reagan deregulated them in early 1981. If you remember (by personal experience or by reading), oil prices fell so low by 1986 that there was talk of imposing "price floors."

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