For those of you complaining about high gas prices.....

[BigDaddy44]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/news/international/usgas_price/index.htm?cnn=yes

We've been getting off cheap for years. And, compared with the vast majority of the world, we're STILL getting off dirt cheap.

[hobbit709]

1. Yeah, but most of those countries tax the shit out of it.

But then their taxes pay for more than what we get for our taxes.

[Echo In Light]

3. And that's a crucial, albeit overlooked aspect of the equation

[ColbertWatcher]

4. I wish I could recommend your reply! n/t

[LSK]

15. like paying for Universal Healthcare

[KansDem]

27. Also, driving a car is an option for residents of Europe...

When I lived in Switzerland, I found that the Swiss didn't have the "ownership society for automobiles" that we have here. I met Swiss who didn't even own a car, because public transportation was excellent. I lived in a small town about 20 kilometers outside Zürich. All the other towns like the one I lived in were connected by electric rail. The train would deposit you in the center of Zürich and just across the street was the tram system hub. The trams would go out to the outer regions of the city.

Both the trains and trams ran constantly.

And the towns were designed so you could walk to the train station in a relatively short amount of time.

Very, very different than here in the US...

[TooBigaTent]

2. Exactly. If we had to pay (directly) the real cost, just maybe the US would be a little more

enlightened about conservation.

But, as with everything else, there are no consequences for Amerika for bad behavior.

[BigDaddy44]

25. I'm glad someone gets it

No one else did evidently......

[demmiblue]

5. Did you even read the article you cited?!

The recommend was me, by mistake!

[BigDaddy44]

8. Of course

My comment was only about the price we pay at the pump (which people have been bitching and moaning about).

[demmiblue]

9. Apples and oranges

[bowens43]

6. So? How does that help anything?

[mrcheerful]

7. Someone hasn't done his research on the big gas is cheap in america

spin by the media it seems. The countries with the lowest gas prices are the countries where the government owns and controls the oil companies. The countries with the highest gas prices are countries that charge the highest taxes on gas. So america is not getting off cheap nor is the product fairly priced when oil companies control the out put of refineries to drive prices up artificially.

[napi21]

10. BIG DIFFERENCE! European countries don't have things like

"the highway bill" and bridge funds, etc. All of their road construction/maintenance is paid from their gas tax. You can't compare apples & oranges. I wouldn't know where to begin to find out how much we are taxed indirectly for funding the highway bill, local bonds issued to construct new roads and bridges, etc. My guess is the tax $$ are roughly the same but come from different sources.

[Red Zelda]

12. And they have universal high-speed rail

we have mostly nothing outside the Northeast Corridor.

[DS1]

11. European companies don't have the Defense Department backing up their prospecting

[LSK]

13. Other countries high gas prices pay for their Universal Healthcare

Our high gas prices pay for Exxon profits.

Big difference and no comparison.

[ColbertWatcher]

18. YES!

Exactly! This is what the GOP-controlled media will never say!

Thank you for posting this!

It should be on a t-shirt or bumper sticker or something.

[seabeyond]

14. i hate that style argument. my children use it a lot. actually oldest has started

lately and drives me mad.... well not mad, but still, i correct him

my father in law did the same when i was talking about an inequality to women, you know, rape, abuse... whatever and he said, you should be thankful you live here cause all over the world.....

so what, i ignore and accept the injustices here cause others got more injustices, or not set up the same as u.s. i think not

if we had the high prices for the same reasons as all over the world, then you would have an argument. but... that isnt reality. greed and greed alone is the reason for our high prices, and that is not a valid reason for the drastic increase.

[VP505]

29. I cringe

when I hear that argument, there are just too many differences in how people live, public transport availability, size of cities and states, etc, for that to be a valid comparison.

[Ikonoklast]

16. Wrong.

Total all taxes paid by transportation and road users in this country, add them to the tax per gallon paid, and you will find we pay more in total.

Spin harder.

[Individualist]

17. So you believe everything your teevee tells you?

:eyes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3230976#3231004

[krispos42]

19. Oh, stuff it

The pump price of a critical commodity has been increasing by an average of some 15% a year for six years! If this was European public-transit prices, European property taxes, European rents, European grocery rates, or any other important item, they'd be going through a "transition" that involves a lot of bitching too!

[wtmusic]

20. Then why aren't we still getting off cheap?

Why are we paying more, relatively speaking, than the rest of the world now?

*crickets*

[plcdude]

21. Does anyone have

the site for the entire survey? It would be interesting to see what China and India are paying.

[MadHound]

22. Oooo, look people, you're getting off cheap!

Yeah, they tried to sell the American public that shit during the seventies, and it is as invalid a comparison now as it was then.

The reason for those high prices, as the article states, is the fact that gas is severely taxed. And what do the people of those countries get for those taxes? Oh, yeah, things like real UHC, a well run mass transit system, good roads, better education, etc. etc. Thus, when you're paying at the pump in England or Iceland, you're not just buying gas(like you are here), you're buying national infrastructure and communal support.

Secondly, there are geographical differences between the US and these other countries. Size for one thing. Many of those countries are smaller than our states. They are more compact and you don't have the same sort of driving distances that you do in the US. Secondly, places like Europe and India have much more fuel efficient vehicles available to the public in general. We're talking real fuel efficiency on everything from the 65mpg Smart Car to that old favorite, the 100mpg Bajaj. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, many countries have much better mass transit systems that the US. Outside of NYC and a couple of other large cities, there is no mass transit to speak of in the US. Therefore you are forced to use your car much more often that these other countries.

Sorry, but please stop trying to trot out this old canard. Comparing apples and oranges didn't make Americans feel better in the seventies, and it won't make us feel better now.

[ColbertWatcher]

23. Well said, give this DUer a Harumph!

Harumph!

[MadHound]

24. LOL, one of my favorite movies.

Always thought it was a shame that Richard Pryor didn't get the star role as originally cast. He did write a large portion of the script however.

[ColbertWatcher]

26. Mel Brooks had a great run there for a while...

...some great movies!

[spanone]

28. i will continue to bitch as long as the oil daddy's are making record, i repeat RECORD profits