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Gas IS Cheap: It's Official

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As a Brit living in the USA I've always been amused by Americans complaining about gas (aka petrol) prices: they complained when it hit $2/gal and are complaining again now its $3/gal.

The US govt. has a great table that shows the US price compared to Europe, starting a few months after I got here and updated weekly. You can see that ten years ago the UK price was more than it is in the USA now.

The ratio has changed a bit: 10 years ago it was 2.5x cheaper here, now it is "only" 2.1x cheaper. Of course everyone pays basically the same for the crude oil, the price differential is due mostly to taxes. Weirdly federal tax on gas is charged not as a percentage (like sales tax is) but per gallon, so as the price of oil rises, the federal tax remains the same, further insulating Americans from the real price. So they can continue to enjoy their Hummers.

[In my own defence I have to point out that one of our SUVs is a hybrid]

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 09, 2006
    The price of oil/gas is not rising.  But the value of our fiat currency is falling.  Compare the price of oil/gas to that of gold or silver and there is a much different story to be told.
  • Anonymous
    May 09, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2006
    So "one of our SUVs is a hybrid" is a defence, is it? How many SUVs and the other vehicles do you have? How many do you need? :-)
  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2006
    If you factor in all the obvious things, it is quite clear that the price of oil is going up.

    So the solution is simply to get share in the oil companies and pay the gas with the profit..
  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    May 25, 2006
    You are forgetting one important thing, which is "distance". Distance from and to work, school, shopping, etc. I was raised in Europe and going anywhere more then 50 miles was a major trip. In US there's a lot of people that drive each way to work 50 miles every day.
  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    May 09, 2013
    The comment has been removed