Beer and Gas

All of the Honest Pint hullabaloo got me thinking about asymmetric information and government regulated and policed standards. Gas pumps are a typical example: certified and tested by the state to be sure you are getting a gallon of gas. But clearly this is a much bigger deal than beer, right? Well, yes, overall it is orders a magnitude bigger, but then when I started to think about my own budget I came to the...what, terrible, delightful, embarrassing, impressive?... realization that I spend about as much on beer as on gas. This is largely because I go for quality beer and beer in pubs over quantity (honest - I swear) and I try and drive as little as possible (though I do drive an awful lot between Portland and Corvallis during the academic year).

Hmmm.....something about this seems so wrong, or so right, I can't decide.