The oil companies could make an extra $170 million annually if the rounded the trailing 9/10 cent on gas prices up to the next cent, the folks at WiseGeek calculate, at an average cost to the consumer of 45 cents. It’s unclear why they don’t do this since, as the piece points out, nobody pays attention to that 9/10 anyway.
This, naturally, brings to mind “Superman 3,” in which Gus Gorman, played by the late comedian Richard Pryor, manipulates computer software to steal the fraction of a cent out of every employee’s salary that was earned but not paid into his own bank account.
Come to think of it, maybe the negative critical reaction to that movie has put the oil companies off the scheme.
