Is it crazy to queue for fuel before a price increase?

So this week we had a fuel increase in South Africa. The price went up by 71 cents. (0.09 cents US) As is tradition here, before the increase, motorists queued to fill up their tanks.

And people take this seriously, sometimes waiting for 30mins or more to fill up. But when you stop and think about it it's nuts to put yourself through this!

Do the math. The average vehicle has a fuel tank capacity of approximately lets say 65L or so, so if your vehicle's tank was completely empty then this exercise (queuing for fuel) would have saved you exactly R49,70 ($6,37)! If your tank was half full R24,85 ($3,18)

See what I mean when I say it's nuts to queue to save R50! :)

On a philosophical note it does illustrate a prevailing "scarcity mentality" among many. This view dramatically impacts your life. If you come from a position of scarcity—you believe there is not enough time, not enough money, not enough customers, etc. Of course there is enough of everything in the world; you just have to look at situations from a slightly different perspective to be able to see it all.

I love this take of the natural world by Simone Lipscomb:

"When I stop and look around me I see outrageous evidence of abundance. Sunsets, sunrises, rolling waves, white sandy beaches, tree-covered mountains all point to unlimited, unbounded, endless good stuff happening all the time."

I like to live my life from that perspective. I believe we live in a super abundant world. Do you think we will ever get the majority of people to "see" the abundance that surrounds us?