I would also like to be able to take a bike where I needed to go, but like you said a lot of places I need to get to are over 20 miles away, and in the winter it would be an absolute impossibility.
And The Americans Think Their Gasoline Is Expensive
- Thread starter L3ggy
- Start date
I would also like to be able to take a bike where I needed to go, but like you said a lot of places I need to get to are over 20 miles away, and in the winter it would be an absolute impossibility.
L3ggy
Special Operations FOX-HOUND
The traffics in this city is hell for everyone.
The gas price is very high in United States because all the European countries tax around 40% more per gallon of gasoline to fund their universal health care system, to provide free higher education system and welfare system is much generous. You can take a vacation off after a free surgery in Sweden and it is the same in U.K., the health care is free.
There is no free lunch. All those government provides free heralth care, free university sytem requires you to pay through much higher tax.
Gotta YOU !
There is no free lunch. All those government provides free heralth care, free university sytem requires you to pay through much higher tax.
Gotta YOU !
Agreed, but why should motorists bear an unfair tax burden to finance what's used by the whole public?
If I go everywhere by bike I still get free healthcare.
UK university education is no longer free , the government in its wisdom has decided that half our young people should go to one (whatever is the use of a degree that half the population can get?) and can't fund it.
By the way, although Americans do drive larger distances than most Europeans the difference isn't all that great, just a couple of thousand miles a year.A 50 mile each way commute isn't that uncommon in the UK. Mine was 25 miles.
Facetious
Moderated
Very important point Petra.Petra said:
Googlemaps the west coast of the United States for example and move off of the coast in an easterly direction and you'll see how desolate it is in most of the country.
At least the Euro and the £ have retained a decent relative value. :o
Americans are being hit with a "two fer" i.e. - devaluation of currency and skyrocketing fuel prices
Why do people have trouble understanding that the prices of gas in the original article and post are all CONVERTED TO DOLLARS!!!! Exchange rates don't matter because they have ALREADY BEEN FACTORED IN! Gas in the US is cheaper than most of the world, weaker dollar or not. All the gas prices have been conveniently converted to that same weak dollar. Taxes on gas in most other countries and also different supply mechanisms make the gas more expensive in most of the world than it is in the US.
Good post.:thumbsup: And let me add that those higher taxes in the other countries have in many cases gone to fund mass transit systems that others have very correctly pointed the US has not invested in and is very deficent in many areas.Some places mass transit may not be all that practical but for sure we clould/should have much better systems in places where it is with all the incentives we can get to encourage their use like fare subsidies.
There's a reason Americans are pissed off, and should be pissed off. We consume the majority of the worlds oil. Americans consume almost 21 million barrels of oil a day, a quarter of the world total of 84 million barrels a day, reports the International Energy Agency. It's like if you go into Sam's Club. You don't go in there to buy bulk crates of products to get a bad deal. The same applies with oil. We consume 1/4th...a QUARTER of the world's oil, so the lower prices reflect that. But we are now getting figuratively raped at the pump, and it's absolutely killing the lower/middle class American.
I think that something else to consider when looking at the prices of gas in different countries is the reliability on a mass public transit system that each place has. Where I live, the train stops running at midnight, and doesn't start until 4 during the week, 6 on Saturdays, and 8 on Sundays. During peak times, you can only catch the train once every 15 minutes during rush hour. In circumstances like these you find yourself driving much more than if you lived somewhere like New York, where the train runs consistently 24 hours a day.
I don't know what public transportation is like in any of the aforementioned countries, but I think that the use of public transportation can somewhat offset the cost of gas that individuals pay.
I don't know what public transportation is like in any of the aforementioned countries, but I think that the use of public transportation can somewhat offset the cost of gas that individuals pay.
As I mentioned above thats what many of them use their higher gas taxes for.To fund better mass transit systems.Its all about choices,america choose to go one way the europeans choose another.But we can now choose to do things differently,but it won't be free or painless.
Facetious
Moderated
^^,^^^,^^^^ etc ad nauseam
and we're just here fiddling as rome burns 'cause everybody has their own dogma as to how to go about resolve. Is there any energy policy on the table ? The candidates only want to talk about death care and the environment . . no talk about an energy policy or excess legal or otherwise immigration. MALFEASANT !
The situation just begs for a dictatorial regime to enter the fray . . . . all by design ? Probley :thefinger :hatsoff:
and we're just here fiddling as rome burns 'cause everybody has their own dogma as to how to go about resolve. Is there any energy policy on the table ? The candidates only want to talk about death care and the environment . . no talk about an energy policy or excess legal or otherwise immigration. MALFEASANT !
The situation just begs for a dictatorial regime to enter the fray . . . . all by design ? Probley :thefinger :hatsoff:
Facetious
Moderated
There could be an enormous amount of energy savings if the US Postal service deliver exclusively on a
conventional M - F schedule. It's been proposed. If there isn't a better time to implement the change, then when ?
Forget about it ! They need to keep their employees occupuyed
conventional M - F schedule. It's been proposed. If there isn't a better time to implement the change, then when ?
Forget about it ! They need to keep their employees occupuyed
Yes i understood the money was already converted to dollars. but i'm saying per 1 unit of currency. 4 of our currency for 1 gal of gas as if the dollar is converted back into pounds it would be about the same. 4 unit of their currency (pounds) for 1 gal. But because we are taxed so lightly compared to them we are actually paying more.
Does any1 understand what i'm saying?
I'm understanding what you're saying but it is an invalid point. The average American makes far more dollars than the average Briton makes pounds. The units of currency are not equal, so you cannot compare prices in two different currencies!
Your final statement makes no sense. Because we are taxed lightly that means we pay less at the pump.
And if you are trying to get at what the actual price of fuel is without the taxes, then I think the UK would be higher as well, because they do not produce as much of their own oil as the US does.
Britain is self sufficient in oil but exports some and imports some because the oil isn't suitable for all uses.
If only the taxes went on better roads or mass transit (though why motorists should subsidise bus and train passengers I'm not sure)-they are simply an easy to collect form of revenue.
Mass transit is generally free for disabled people and anyone over 60 in the UK.
I stand corrected, marquis2. I had no idea that Britain produced so much oil. As for petrol taxes being used for mass transit purposes, they do the same thing here in the US. In fact, a proposal for an $8 tax just to enter lower Manhattan was recently narrowly defeated. If implemented most if not all of the money was going to go towards mass transit purposes.
