No Gas For You!

Driving cars, it is a staple of life in America.  Being allowed to drive is one of our greatest privileges.  Since freedom of speech is dying, driving may now be the biggest privilege that we have. It remains the best option for seeing our country and all of its vast wonders.  The automobile is as American as apple pie or burgers, hotdogs, and such shit.

I recently decided to hop in a car and drive approximately 40 miles to my favorite bookstore.  It was a cruelly hot Saturday with temperatures in the triple digits.  My air conditioner was running full tilt.  The trip was uneventful until the gas gauge revealed the reality, I am out of fuel.  I pulled into one of the local, corporate-owned filling stations (seems that is all that is out there anymore) to refresh my tank.  After inserting the fill hose into the filler neck, I selected cash on the pump’s video screen.  You know—cash.  Those green pieces of paper that once were accepted by businesses everywhere.

As I stood there waiting for gas to flow into my empty tank nothing happened.  Finally, a cash register person comes out and in a very snarky, stern voice informs me that I must pre-pay before I can pump gas.  But when I noted that there was no sign or message on the pump indicating that I had to pre-pay, the young lady scoffed at me.  In a voice that seemed puzzled by all of this she asked, “don’t you have an APP?”.   Um no, but I have cash.  The young woman looked at me as if I had just asked her for a kidney.

“Well,” she replied, I guess you can use cash, but you have to pay first. Ok, I get it, no one is trusted anymore.  I guess drive-offs have become so common that you have to give them your payment before you can have the product.  Ok, I can live with that however, the young lady attendant still seemed reluctant to have to deal with a cash pre-payment.  Was it because she can not make the correct change?  I think the computer register does that for them, doesn’t it?

I went to the counter, presented my cash, and with a frustrated sigh, the young woman snatched the cash from my hand like my dog snatches her beef stick, nearly taking off my fingers.  Now, I made it easy for her as I asked for $20 of gas and handed her a twenty.  This meant that she didn’t have to count out change for me—easy peasy!  As I exited the building, I was not thanked, told to have a nice day, or for that matter invited back.

I sometimes wonder what the elimination of cash in this country will lead to. Electronic payment devices are easily ripped off these days, especially when you travel.  In addition, our government seems hell-bent to remove cash from our system—why?  This will leave us with only electronic cash cards, apps, and other electronic gizmos to do our shopping.  Every transaction you do will be monitored by the government.  Privacy, what privacy?

All of these payment devices are reliant on the power grid and the internet.  Gone are the days when you can just flip ole neighbor Fred a 5 spot for half of the investment in a cold 12 pack.  No longer can you stuff a $20 bill in graduation cards for the grandkids.  But instead, you will have to have your card out and available for the grandchildren to scan with their goddamn cell phone readers.  Talk about taking any semblance of ease or personal touch out of these events.  When you visit the grandchildren, you will have to prompt them to get their electronic devices to give them their Christmas cash.  The feel of crisp new dollar bills recently obtained from the bank will vanish like the dinosaurs.   

But I digress back to the young women who seemed puzzled by the concept of a cash payment.  The population has been slowly groomed for a cashless world, apps (mainly cell phones) have indoctrinated the younger generation through a slow-moving form of hypnosis.  First, they created apps with games then slowly they progressed into every aspect of human life.  I’ll bet there is an APP for wiping your ass, well at least one that shows you how, since parenting is extinct.

I used to laugh at all the Hollywood flicks that showed machines taking over the world.  Now, I believe those who wrote future machine fiction are geniuses.  It is absolutely unbelievable that the movie Idiocracy is no longer a sci-fi comedy but rather a documentary.  This is our world today, where you no longer have to have any thinking skills, a machine will do it for you.  Machines will make the concept of “lemmings to the sea”, a reality.  At the command of their new masters, everyone will walk lockstep right off of the edge of the cliff.

Imagine the office football pool which will now require some form of mobile payment system or cash transfer service.  To put your one-dollar bet down will require a fee that will exceed the amount that you are betting.  Perhaps we can go old school and underground with shekels that will assume the role of funny money. All of this leads me to believe that the machines will rise up and Americans will fold like a cheap lawn chairs.  What will they do in TV series and movies when someone pulls cash out of their pocket, remove it from the money clip and count out the crisp new dollar bills?  Maybe they will develop a card with sound effects.

All I am saying here is that our freedoms are dying in many ways and the removal of cash from our society is just one way of being enslaved by the fascist, corporate bastards that run this country.  As always this is just my opinion!

The Grumpy Old Fart Customer

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