Posted: Nov 11, 2025 1:52 PM PST

I feel like this one is more just total indifference to the screwing over of poor people, rather than active attempts.

It’s not like rearranging the order of your daily back transactions to put deposits and small withdrawals last, where they’re creating more overdrafts on purpose to extract more fees from poor people. That one really steamed my gizzard back when I was living paycheck to paycheck. That was active malice.

This one is not making them any money. It’s more of a casual “I want to make sure nobody rips me off by taking gas they’re credit card won’t cover, and I don’t give any shits about how that makes poor people unable to buy gas and groceries on the same day “

Not so.

The gas station putting the hold on was never getting any interest anyway.

The credit card company is not getting interest because a temporary hold is not a purchase.

Filling up an 18 wheeler can cost $1000. I don’t think the truck stops are using our piddly $150 car-side gas pump limits for the diesel pumps on the truck side.

Filling up my gas motor home at regular car gas station pumps all over, I find that Truck stops, big chain gas stations, little podunk gas stains in the middle of nowhere all use limits from $100-$200, which is not enough for me to fill up. My guess is that number used to be “safely big enough to fill up anything” and they haven’t adjusted it as the gas prices went up.

$150 sounds about normal. I put gas into a motor home with an 85 gallon tank. Generally the pumps will cut off once or even twice before the tank is full — sometimes at $100, sometimes at $125, sometimes at $150

They don’t actually charge the extra, so once get over the initial shock of thinking you got stolen from, this is not a real problem (unless you’re running your card right up to the ragged edge of your credit limit.)

Naomi Kritzer has written a few really good short stories on this topic that are kind useful reflections on how life could look if AI exists and isn’t controlled by narcissistic billionaires:

Better Living Through Algorithms

“Prophet of the Roads,” Infinity’s End — no link to read the story online but 100% worth looking up

Cat Pictures Please

I liked it and I’m sad it’s gone. So there.

I also liked the books.

Insert Sartre joke serious philosophical statement here

“I’m sorry, we’re out of cream. Would you like your coffee with no milk, instead?”

Nobody’s fucking raw pasta, mate