Michigan Votes Forum

 The oil companies aren't going to like this.  But with the billions and billions of profits they make-they can afford it.  I sprained my ankle real bad one time and found out a little taste of what a disabled/or elderly person goes through.  Its horrible!  No one cares for one thing.  I had to crawl on my hands and knees accross parking lots to find a place to get crutches.  Then I though what if I couldn't pay my bills?  I can see where a person thinks about doctor assisted suicide when they become disabled.  No one gives crap!  I absolutely hate the thought of getting old or disabled!  YOU LOSE EVERYTHING! you worked so hard for!  Its horrible, horrible, horrible.

We have to be careful about what we allow government to regulate and we allow free enterprise to find and demand for. An enterprising young person, may find that to request a gas station owner to let him work for tips, as a full service attendant at the station for just such situations. Word would get around that the service is being offered. I sometimes think we turn to the government for answers instead of getting creative and entrepreneurial. With government regulations come strings. Strings we may find restrictive down the line.

 You are so on the mark, couldn't have said it better myself!

 While I certainly have empathy for disabled motorists, we should think of the ramifications of this law. Most gas stations are of the "mini-mart" style with only one employee on site a lot of the time, especially during evening and night times of the day when business can be slow. This bill would force the stations to keep two employees on site. Someone has to mind the store and the other customers while the other employee would go outside the building to pump gas. The bill prevents higher gas prices for the full service pump, but somebody will have to pay for the added cost to cover the added expense to the station owner. The big oil companies that make the billions and billions of profits aren't the ones that own the stations. A station owner is usually a local small business person that depends on profits for their paycheck. ANY TAX OR ADDED EXPENSE WE PUT ON BUSINESSES GETS PASSES ON TO THE CONSUMERS. PERIOD.

I am weeks away from turning 66 years old, am fighting a serious disease and think this bill is a crock.

I would wish Rep. Bert Johnson think through his proposals.  Is it really help or hinder Michigan businesses with this type of mandate?  I don't think so.  Thank you...

 This bill is not only assinine it is also very short-sighted.  Why?  Because --  in these hard economic times many gas stations only have one employee on a shift who is running the register.  This bill will cause the station owner to hire at minimum two employees per shift thus costing them needed revenue to run the station.  Does anyone in Lansing put one mental foot in front of the other?

 I totally agree with you kdonnellon.  People have been indoctinated into believing that government will create a utopia.  Instead, that big sucking sound you hear coming from your wallet is the cost of all the bureaucracy that government has created.  The money that the Big Brother government doles out for entitlements, grants, tax-abatements, and especially for all those who receive salaries, benefits, and perks because they work for the government does not come from "Obama's stash" -- it comes from the taxpayer.  As Frederic Bastiat referred to it in his book 'The Law'  -- "Legalized Plunder."  The more government takes from the those who labor the less the taxpayer has to spend and generate revenue for private businesses, charity, and other venues that contribute towards helping the private sector stay whole and healthy.

"But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime."  -- Frederic Bastiat

 You have got to be kidding.  Do they not have anything else to do in the House.  I am sure all of the local gas station owners are thrilled that the government will be running their stations for them.  I wonder when Rep. Bert Johnson will start paying all the bills that go along with running the houses new gas stations?  Apparently all of our budget problems are solved and we are no longer losing jobs in Michigan and all of our residents are gainfully employeed, there is no unemployment and none of our residents are on welfare.  I can't think of any other reasons why our Representatives would have any free time to even consider something as outrageous as this one. 

It is time we banned together as the owners of this great Country and tell all of these so called Representatives their days in the lime light are over.  If they are there now as far as I am concerned they won't be there after November.  I will take my chances with a totally new line up and see what they can do instead of keeping what we have because they just don't get it. 

 What in the name of all that is holy is are our elected representatives doing wasting their time on somthing this stupid? We should be worrying about having to pay for Obama's debacle called Health Care Reform. Michigan's unemployment rate is what?.....15% or so?

Note to elected representatives for the state of Michigan....DO SOMETHING WORTHWHILE with your time in office. Get rid of the punitive tax structure in Michigan, find jobs, bring in new businesses...and not the stupid battery companies or the movie companies. Batteries fill up landfills, movie companies move away. We need jobs that are here to stay, in the WHOLE state, not just Detroit. Which is where the majority of the new businesses are going to be located.

Remember, November 3 will be the day you can all sign up for unemployment.

I don't think a bill mandating this is the answer.   I do believe that if you talk with some of wholesale marts (Costco or Sam's Clubs w/gas stations) or Meijer to send a employee from the store for a period (Monday-Friday 9-5) to pump gas. This would be good for the paid membership clubs to increase memberships.