New Gas Price Sign!

OMG!! WTF?? LOL


have you seen this?:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/23/chavez.gasoline.reut/

If gasoline would be sold at the new (terribly high) US prices over here (Germany), most drivers would jump for joy. We pay for the liter, what you pay for the gallon

btw: 1 liter is something like 0.2642 gal ...

That's cute!

I think that if there is anything that spells trouble and BIG trouble for any sitting president in the U.S. it is precipitously rising cost of gasoline.

coco

There is a jewelry store here that has a sign that says: "Sell your Gold, Buy Gas"

I keep meaning to stop and take a picture cuz it makes me giggle.

Awww. Chavez is just being a pissy little monkey, is he not? I mean, one little death threat from Pat Robertson, and the guy loses it.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/23/robertson.chavez/

yeah, but you should see what Casto and Chavez consider "below the poverty line"

I know! why would he get all worked up over that? Robertson is just a senile old fart!!

Don't know about that. . . he might be wicked-smhaat. Or a CIA operative.



(Nawww. He is dumber than a box of rocks)

Bah. I prefer these myself:

Don't any of these places offer Diesel? My golf TDI is getting 45-48 MPG's with the air conditioning on. I fill up on gas once in a blue moon.

ROFLMAO

Those two are always a laugh riot when they get together aren't they!!!?

At least they have a sense of humor..lol

Yeah, same in Japan. Typical of America, they just don't know how good they have it.

As an easier bit of math, a gallon is 3.8 liters. So, multiply the prices by 3.8 (or 4~5 to be even easier, since americans still pay less taxes on owning automobiles) and then you'll see why life is so cheap in the US.

lmao...

Its not really comparable, I guess.

First: America is a HUUUUUGE country! Germany is not!
Second: The US railroad system (outside some areas) is quasi inexisting. Not so in Germany.
Third: Its the change in prices, the steep raise, that is driving people wild.

And with regard to taxes on owning and buying automobiles: ask my Love. She lives in Sweden. Car prices are ridiculous in Sweden or Denmark. No one complains much. They are used to it.

but we are americans, thus spoiled, ignorant, and unable to look beyond ourselves.

I don't think so ... And it were true to a degree ... at least I dont think that US-Americans would be alone in being "spoiled, ignorant, and unable to look beyond" themselves.

Sounds all very ... human ... to me!

Yeah, but really its all we have going for ourselves at the moment, well that and Pringles.

Pfft, I drive a hybrid so I'm ok

Hmmm. Sounds like I should try "Pringles" finally ...

The more of any product you buy, the bigger the discount.

The more people paying taxes, the less the individual taxes will be.

So the fact that gasoline has been historically cheaper here, than in Europe, only stands to reason.

Deirdre is correct, it's mainly the sharp increase that has people in a tizzy.

All that said, this should serve as a warning signal to us Americans.

We need to seriously invest in energy alternatives. We need to invest in better mass transit. Once you leave the northern East Coast, decent mass transit is nearly non-existent, with the exception of Chicago.

When I see these people driving around ALONE, during rush hour, in HUGE gas sucking SUVs, I want to move to Europe!

I wish I had bought into one of these gas banks a few years back. I know a couple of people who did, and they are currently getting gas that they had "banked" for them at the time it was being offered for under 2$ a gallon.

Perhaps it's because the US produces a fair quantity of it's own oil, compared with the aforementioned counties like Germany and Japan. Who rely on the bulk of their fuel from other countries.

I don't really care much about it either. I know what I paid for fuel when I lived in Japan for 3 years, and it was more than I'm currently spending in the US (and that was back in the early 80s). I didn't sweat it then, either. I like burning dead dinosaur smooze, and I'm willing to pay for that.

I just wish France had huge oil reserves so we could invade them next.

For all of the macroecomic experts raising theories on the reaons for the three to four times higher gasoline price in Europe and Japan I suggest browsing the CIA Fact Book (http://www.cia.gov/).

You will see that there are not many "facts" supporting the theory that gas prices are co-related to the size of the national economy ... or to the percentage of petroleum found inside the borders of a nation. All these assumptions are nice and plausible ... but not supported by facts.

The gasoline price is a political price - like the price of bread in the Roman Empire and i mostly determined by the taxes on gasoline

Btw: there is no significant correlation between the size of an economy and the level of taxation either

I am not an expert, nor do I claim to be. This is why I generally do not post in the land and economy forum, because one usually gets slammed by a bunch of self-styled "experts" over there.

I was required to take Macro and Micro in college though, so I do have some appreciation for economics.

Generally, it stands to reason, in my mind, that bigger tax base = lower overall taxes per capita. I say "generally" because I am sure it doesn't apply to all nations. I do think it probably applies in this situation though. I could be wrong, but it really doesn't matter, as it is the individual nation's taxes that really cause the vast imbalances.

Here is a comparision of current (2005) taxes in the US and UK - the numbers are in US cents/dollars:

UK - 89 cents per litre

USA - 4.86 cents Federal, and an average of 5.8 cents State, for a total of 10.66 cents per litre average.

That's nearly nine times the amount of tax per litre in the UK vs. the US.


Here are some numbers I found from 2001:

Country 	     Tax % of price

United Kingdom 	       76%
France 	               74%
Germany 	       73%
Italy 	               69%
Spain 	               63%
Japan 	               57%
Canada 	               45%
United States 	       29%

Clearly, it has more to do with the decision making of each respective country's legislative bodies than anything else.

Now a question for you Deirdre. Is this gross imbalance in excise taxes what you meant when you said "The gasoline price is a political price"?

I think that is what you meant, and if so, I agree 100%.

European gas taxes are very high... if Europeans don't like the prices, they should complain to their governments--not call Americans spoiled or whatever other names. That does bug me a little, and although yes I do admit that there's too much complaining going on here (US) about gas prices. We should do alot of expansion of our mass transit, but what works for Europe does not neccesarily work for the US. We've gotten to where we are because of the systems we have so toying with it may not be such a great idea either.

We're told that we should be driving tiny go-carts over here instead of larger vehicles, but do the people saying that realize that those little putters are going to be driving alongside lots of very large and heavy tractor trailers at 60+mph? You do not want to be in one of those little things driving in between two huge ass trucks, either of which could probably change lanes on top of you and maybe not even realize it. I'd love to be able to drive a little Spitfire, or other cool looking go-cart sized car here. But would I want to take one of those on a freeway? Hell no...