No Stupid Questions

I think that’s incorrect. The ground pin is a dedicated equipotential reference bonded to the earth via an acyclic wiring path which carries no current. It does go pretty directly to the ground rod via the breaker panel ground bus. Neutral happens to be connected to it at the entrance panel for fault clearing, but not really for any other reason.

Since all metallic chassis, pipes, ducts, etc are connected to it and it is available pretty much throughout a building, it is a logical place to connect ESD-prevention gear, even if the earth has little to do with that. (But, a grounding electrode system installed to code should have less than 25 ohm impedance to ideal earth - not exactly a “poor” conductor)

The ground pin in a north American outlet, at least, isn't actually grounded

When I had my circuit breaker replaced and went to 200A service a few years ago, we had to have 2 ground rods put in (maybe we reused the old one, I can't remember) plus a wire following our copper water supply lines until just past the meter. Inspector actually made them redo that last one because it stopped just shy of the meter. Maybe there are other ways of going it, but actual honest-to-goodness grounding is also a thing here.

The ground pin in a north American outlet, at least, isn't actually grounded. It's just a dedicated circuit that goes back to the neutral line in the circuit breaker box. It doesn't go to the ground there, either.

Except is special circumstances the ground connection on outlets does go to a separate ground bussbar inside the panel ( as well as acting as the chassis ground for the panel).

That bussbar is typically connected to the neutral, but code requires it to also be connected to an actual earth ground.

Ground is the entirely wrong term but people will argue it up and down because it has always been called ground.

It serves the same purpose so they kept the existing name that hasn't been literal for a very, very long time.

Tl; dr - we’re all capacitors, discharging into a bigger capacity capacitor = grounding?

AFAIK, there might an error in the first part, at least in Europe, where you have 3 Phase AC coming to your home, the neutral line connects to ground in the main breaker box, not the other way round. For US, this shouldn't be different.

Wait so you can use a static dissipating mat without it being connected to a grounding outlet and still be protected? Why do mats even have the option of grounding then, is it just for added insurance?

An electrical ground is reservoir into which you can dump charge with altering its potential difference. A car, in and of itself, is ground for the small shocks that occur from static. The earth is a bit overkill here.

Edit: I am about to use the word "safe" on the internet. Normal "don't trust everyone on the internet" warnings apply.

You are correct that connecting yourself to ground of the car is the same as connecting to the negative terminal. You should be safe doing so in a properly wired car.

That is to say, unless you expect to be at different potential differences. When might that happen? In a lightning strike for example. You do NOT want to electrically connected to your car's ground in a lightning strike. (You should be perfectly safe inside the car, not touching the car's ground.) Your car is not a reservoir for that kind of charge.

The earth can handle a lightning strike without a (measurable) change in potential difference. This is why fish are not cooked in lightning storms.

In a car, my understanding is that it is to dissipate energy into the car frame vs catching wires on fire.

The solution here is to bring a bucket of dirt inside and stick the ground rod in that.

Ohh its not my house and homeowner said it will be potentially expensive and will need professional help finding a suitable place to drive the rod in to not cause damage. I agreed and that was that

Maybe OP's a renter?

While the NEC does generally require grounded receptacles, there remain a lot of old homes which don't have the ground wire (formally the "equipment grounding conductor") in the junction box to actually connect to said grounded receptacles. Fortunately, the NEC provides a rule in 406.4(D)(2), allowing an upstream GFCI to be used in lieu of the safety of a ground wire, and permitting a 3 prong receptacle to be installed. This is a practical consideration by the NEC, since obviously rewiring homes to add the ground wire would be safer, but economically, a GFCI provides a pretty good degree of safety; the NEC makes these compromises all the time, in pursuit of "good" rather than an implausible "perfect".

That said, the lack of a grounded receptacle has some notable limitations, since technically some appliances must have a properly grounded receptacle to be used, although it's rarely checked. And in OP's case, the lack of ground wires means OP cannot leverage the convenient earth ground point.

Yes, the center (neutral) is connected to ground somewhere, but is not a suitable ground reference - because current on the neutral creates a voltage drop along the neutral conductor. A North American outlet box has Hot (L1), maybe another Hot (L2), Neutral, and also an earth/ground conductor.

Neutral is not ever treated as ground; it’s impermissible to connect it to any bare metallic surface. Other than not being switched, and being the side that ends up on the threads of a light socket, it’s handled the same way as a hot/line conductor. Just like a 240V system.

It would dissipate static fine, if you were allowed to touch it.

You probably live in a humid place. Try doing that in a desert.

I have handled/sundered bare ICs, expensive GPU/CPUs, ... and never had and issues with static (the things were not broken after installation) without any sort of grounding or any other thought spent on this topic.

It varies a lot with for example humidity, the kind of floor you have installed, the clothes you are wearing.

When I handle electronics in a personal capacity, I usually wing it. Professionally I always ground myself.

Many modern chips can tolerate a certain static discharge. Also if you're like me, you have ~30% humidity indoors and engineered laminate flooring. I can't remember the last time I experienced a zap touching a doorknob. I've also handled many dozens of ICs building boards and I can't think more than a few times I've had a problem that might be attributable to ESD. I still take precautions when handling PC components just in case.

Three prong grounded plugs weren't required by the NEC in new homes until the 70s so two prong, ungrounded outlets are common in old houses.

The thing is, it may not “break” them but may introduce difficult to localize unreliable operation - which you may even explain away as buggy software.

IC’s, especially small feature size CMOS, absolutely are subject to ESD damage.

I think that's basically it as far as I know.

Static electricity is an imbalance in electrical charge or, in other words, electrons.[1]

When two objects touch, like a hand and a doorknob, electrons can flow from one to the other. They do this because they repell each other. So they maximize their distance from each other.

It's like electrons are introverts and stuck in a crowded room. When someone opens a door to another emptier room, some of the introverts will go into the new room and everyone will have more space between them.

So where does static charge come from?

When certain materials slide across each other, electrons move from one to the other. For example, fur and rubber rod. Rub the rod vigorously with the fur ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) and a static charge builds up on the rod.

For what it's worth, I've noticed many of the modern ICs I work with list a certain tolerance for static discharge in their data sheets. I no longer go crazy overboard on cheap stuff. I only bring out the mat and strap when adding or removing expensive PC components.