“PARIS — Americans are shell-shocked at $4-a-gallon gas. But consider France, where a gallon of petrol runs nearly $10. Or Turkey, where it’s more than $11.
“Drivers around the world are being pummeled by the effects of record gas prices. And now some are hitting back, staging strikes and protests from Europe to Indonesia to demand that governments do more to ease the pain.
“It’s a growing problem in a world that’s increasingly mobile and more vulnerable than ever to the cost of crude oil, which is racing higher by the day and showing no signs of stopping.”
Read more in: “Global gas priaces makes U.S. look cheap” by Angela Charlton, Associated Press, published in the Helena, Mont., Independent Record.
Photo: Cars drive to a petrol station advertising ‘low prices’ in Anglet, France, Wednesday. Consumers, gas retailers and governments are wrestling as rising oil prices play a larger role than ever in the daily lives of increasingly mobile world citizens. AP Photo.
Regarding the high price of gas in other countries. I have yet to see anyone also mention how much of there gas cost has built in taxes and how much they amount to. Some countries unlike here in America pay no income tax. Which in retrospect may in fact be cheaper than ours. Also nothing is ever mentioned regarding what the average income level is of the people in these countries. So much for the media giving us all the facts.
The one thing that I have never heard discussed is what is the cost of gas compared to income. For example, everyone in Australia have a livable income. Most people in the US do not have a livable income. The other thought is that the dollar is worthless (down by 50% since Bush) in the world economy. Oil is based on the dollar and therefore the price keeps going up as the dollar decreases. Mobil Oil had a profit last year equal to the cost of operating the Coast Guard fo one year and equal to 5 times the cost of the FBI for one year -OUCH. The US voters have to wake up and take the government back from the oil and war mongers.
I’m not sure why, but these stories about the high prices being paid in other countries for gasoline do not make me feel better about our high prices. Misery does not love company. Our prices are too high.
SO? Do we want to live in a place that is a NANNY state? They TAX it so high so they will have money to give their people anything they think the STATE OWES them!!! Steve
Ho-hum. Premium gas in Venezuela is $.132. You can fill up your Mercedes for $1.32 or your Toyota for $1.10. But who would want to live under dictator Hugo Chavez?