Many motorists these days are complaining about the cost of gasoline, but what people consider a fair price varies greatly, depending on where they live. Posted on 10/19/2005 12:56:26 AM PDT by M. Espinola
Many motorists these days are complaining about the cost of gasoline, but what people consider a fair price varies greatly, depending on where they live.
Americans angrily grit their teeth as they pump $3-per-gallon gas. They think $2 is about right. In Britain, $3 sounds fanciful - people there pay about $6.40 a gallon and think $5 would be fair.
AP-Ipsos polling in the United States and eight of its allies turned up wide disparities in people's thoughts on the cost of filling up.
Spaniards would like to see gasoline for just over $3 a gallon. People in France, Italy, Germany and South Korea put the fair market price $4 or a little more. Australians and Canadians would like to see it just under $3 a gallon.
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population but consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day, about one-fourth of the global total, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
Many Europeans have found alternatives to depending on cars as fuel prices soared over the past few years. In much of the United States, however, people are addicted to the car and view it as essential to social and economic well-being. When gas prices shoot to record levels, it rattles the U.S. economy and depresses consumer confidence.
"This whole country runs on cheap gas," said Clinton Ahrens, a businessman from Dows, Iowa. Most Americans have come to expect it over the years, he said.
In much of Europe and elsewhere, gas taxes account for two-thirds or more of the price of gasoline. People in those countries look for high-mileage cars. Public transportation is well-developed.
In the U.S., taxes vary by state but amount to about 20 percent of gas prices. Fuel is cheaper in this country than in most parts of the world, investment in mass transit is minimal, gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks zoom along highways and politicians talk about increasing gas taxes - or any taxes - at their own risk.
"We do have a sense of entitlement here in the United States," said Steve Yetiv, a political scientist at Old Dominion University in Virginia who has studied the impact of energy prices.
"This stems partly from the individualism that is part of the American fabric - an individualism that prizes freedom of action and prizes the freedom to buy as big a car as you want to buy," Yetiv said.
While Billy Fillers of Sycamore, Ill., drives a Chevy Tahoe on his rounds to do X-ray repairs, his weekly gasoline bill has gone from $60 to $120. But he likes his SUV: "The bigger your vehicle, the faster your vehicle - it's a status symbol."
People in most of the countries polled agree the rising price of gasoline is causing financial hardships.
From two-thirds to three-fourths of those in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Korea and the United States say they expect increases in the price of gasoline to cause them hardships. About half in Britain said they worried about financial hardships, and one-third of respondents in Germany felt that way.
Many surveyed say there is little they can do about it.
Renato Baldini, dean of a private school in Rome, said, "I have no alternatives. The only thing I can do now is drive slower, to try and save gas."
In all the countries, women were more likely than men to see the rise in gas prices as a personal hardship.
"Women - particularly those with children at home - are much more worried than men about the financial impact of rising gas prices on the family budget," said Thomas Miller, managing director of Ipsos Public Affairs in New York.
Joyce Via, a retiree from Craigsville, Va., said the price of gas is hurting her family. "We live in a very rural area, have to drive about 23 miles to go shopping, but we won't be going as often," she said. "I'm sure it's going to have an impact on heating bills. It gets pretty cold out here."
A majority of people in most of the nations polled said they think their government can act to limit increases in the price of gasoline. In many of those countries, unhappy consumers have been pushing for more government action.
South Koreans and Germans doubted how much government can limit increases - with only one-fourth of people in each of those countries expecting much help.
The polls of about 1,000 adults in each of the nine countries were conducted between Sept. 17 and Oct. 2 and each has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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Not to mention there are always good public forms of transportation in those countries unlike the US where if you can't drive to where you need to go you are out of luck.
One of the reasons for that being that the cheap gas Americans have traditionally had access to has discouraged mass transit alternatives.
There were mass demonstrations in 2003 in Europe to tell the US "no blood for oil". Ironic that they had cheap gas from Iraq before the invasion. </sarcasm>
The day we look to Old Europe to tell us how the economy works is the day that we look to end our ability to create capital.
Any gasoline tax is a tax on the poor (not to mention the rest of us) as the cost has to be paid by those who have to drive to work and the cost of food. For those of us who are not poor, then we pay more taxes at the local and state level because operating costs of government services rise due to inflation and more people make claims on the government.
And the costs that are "passed on" to the consumers are not without consequences. The article assumes that people will use gas differently. That's likely true, but probably not to the idea of a uniform response. Gas use would be down, so would other businesses as we in the dreaded private sector have to pay for the higher prices.
Lastly, do we really want to emulate the "cost consciousness" of government operated mass transportation? It's just not credible. Amtrak runs at a loss. A number of airlines are in financial trouble and looking for a bailout (which somehow makes their performance worse, but that's a story for another day). Just how well do we think that municipalities run buses anyway? When the government gets involved, no one is responsible.
All I can think of is the Monorail episode of the Simpsons
About the only state on a tank of gas would be Rhode Island, but not in rush hour.
1.75 sounds about right and would happen if the damn Demoncats would stop obstructing drilling all over the place!!!!
When I started driving, gas was 25 cents ( not dollars... ) a gallon. And you could buy 130 octane Sunoco for your 12.5:1 compression V-8.
True, it's a different world now- cell phones, the internet, place the world at your fingertips-- back then, if you were rich, you could haul a marine radiotelephone around with you, call the Marine Operator, and get patched into the phone system... or use a pay phone, in an actual phone booth.
My point being that all the modern convieniences, all the technology, we enjoy today, is built upon a vast, inverted pyramid of energy and knowledge. It doesn't take much to unbalance that pyramid and send it toppling over.
The modern, consumer based and driven economy is founded upon plentiful, reliable energy- in my opinion, that is more crucial than cheap, although cheaper is preferable.
Whatever "energy crisis" we have in this country is annoying, because the solutions- more drilling, more nukes, using coal- exist, the problems with these are engineering problems, which if not already solved, can be solved.
The main problem is a lack of education with the public, and a lack of political will to address this.
A sidenote- most Europeans have only the vaguest idea of how large and vast America is-- their high gas prices, and their public transit, just cannot apply to us. I can drive a whole day in my state, and if I take non-Interstate roads, never get out of Georgia. The nearest "city" neighboring me is 25 miles away, across salt marshes. Three attempts at public transit between us failed miserably- just not enough riders wanted to go where the buses would take them, at the times they were running.
We used to have a nice railway connecting us to the cities to the south of us, but during the 1990's-- what I label "the decade of fraud(s)"-- the Greenies got it converted into a bike path for Yuppies.
Which nobody uses.
110 degree heat index, skeeters, gnats, horseflies, and rattlesnakes, 30 miles between anyplace to get water- the few that try it don't do it again.
Sometimes, I really do think Americans, collectively, are "stuck on stupid..."
Three attempts at public transit between us failed miserably- just not enough riders wanted to go where the buses would take them,....and so explains the shell game local,state and federal officials play on us with our own hard earned and wasted tax money.....
We are the third largest nation on earth. From Chicago to LA is about the same distance it is from London to Israel.
End of story. Of course we wont mention the money rates of some of these counrties.
As a result consumption of energy products dramatically fell in Asian nations resulting in extreme bearishness in the energy trading pits. Crude oil sunk to record lows, under $11.00 a barrel, and pump prices fell under a dollar a gallon.
Could we be viewing a similar situation in the making with the market reversal brought about by an oil fueled inflationary process well under way through the American and global economy, which only now is the government actually admitting there is a serious problem.
What is the next phase of the ongoing petrol-inflationary-spiral, a housing/construction pull back, affecting other expensive commodities as copper?
If or when there is another major adverse jolt to the energy markets, let's say in or near the oil rich Persian Gulf, triggered by either Iran, Syria or al-Qaida sending general energy costs far higher, eventually world-wide consumption will begin to decline and oil & natural gas prices should begin to reverse.
Contingent on the state one resides, state gas taxes are also contributing to the the high pump prices. The the Euro-Zone petrol taxes are killers.
No more then 99 cents a gallon once the inevitable energy price reversal gets under way. Wishful thinking, right?
The last one was "Tri-City Transit," during the Arab oil embargo, and until it rusted away, one of their bus-stop signs was four or five blocks away from here. The "cities" mentioned are 25, 50, and 60 miles away, and there simply were not enough riders who needed to go to them, at the hours they ran, to sustain a bus company.
We used to have trolleycars, back about a hundred years ago-- an old friend of mine once observed, "trains were what made America great in the 1800's, and it was cars in the 1900's."
Anyone price a bottle of water? Was at an event and they wanted $2 for a small bottle of the stuff.
Cut the freakin' taxes on gasoline and we can ALL better afford it.........yes, worldwide.
Is that regular or high-test? I must locate this place :)
That Sunoco was like rocket fuel for the 455-4! I wish they would bring that stuff back.
"My point being that all the modern conveniences, all the technology, we enjoy today, is built upon a vast, inverted pyramid of energy and knowledge. It doesn't take much to unbalance that pyramid and send it toppling over."
Excellent points!
"110 degree heat index, skeeters, gnats, horseflies, and rattlesnakes, 30 miles between anyplace to get water- the few that try it don't do it again."
Sounds like the perfect place to throw anti-American hippie protesters.
I agree in rural areas many passenger railroads have gone the same route as the Hudson & De Soto. I am used to good subways, buses, trolleys, cabs and crabby cabby's. i know what you mean though.
"Whatever "energy crisis" we have in this country is annoying, because the solutions- more drilling, more nukes, using coal- exist, the problems with these are engineering problems, which if not already solved, can be solved. The main problem is a lack of education with the public, and a lack of political will to address this."
Bingo! Right on target, now if we can only convince law makers to wake up prior to the next energy earthquake rocketing crude price well over $100 a barrel. We have a smoldering fire with Iran and her terrorist cohorts that could explode into a 5 alarm fire maybe as soon as this coming winter.
Happy Motoring, :)
I know what you mean, water (which most likely comes out of the tap) is becoming like liquid gold. It's crazy.
"Cut the freakin' taxes on gasoline and we can ALL better afford it.........yes, worldwide."
Oh, I just heard on the news shrimp prices are due to rise 20%. Love those Chinese bufféts :)
Out here in the San Gabriel Valley I come home every night along the 210 Freeway and observe this monumental effort to mass transit they built along the old Southern Pacific line east out of Pasadena....It runs for a few miles and dies at this huge four level car parking garage....the funny thing is, it runs right between the freeway for all to see...that they carry no more than ten people in three cars every day!...f'ing graet waste of money!
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-FL) doesn't think gas is too high. Otherwise, he wouldn't be lambasting Gov. Jeb Bush for even investigating the possibility of drilling for more oil 125 miles off the FL coast IN FEDERAL WATERS. Nelson thinks Floridians should pay at least $5 or $6/gal. or perhaps do without gasoline altogether so he can look at "pristine beaches." (Wonder if he's notified God yet that He can't send Hurricane Wilma to mess up Florida's beaches?) And how many tourists does this idiot think will drive to FL if gas keeps going up? Ben Nelson proves that one doesn't need to be intelligent to be an astronaut or a FL senator.
public transportation is for socialists and loosers(with the exception of air travel).
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