selling off my loot....

Yes but we will complain anyway because we are Americans and gas and oil are vital to our way of life.

I wasn't complaining. I've bought gas in the UK. I ride the bus when I can. I've walked to the store and back.

Besides we buy a lot more oil than anyone else does per capita... when you buy in bulk, you get a cheaper price. Not to mention US companies were the people who put the money into the development of automobiles, and internal combustion engines to begin with... so if you really want to argue if we should have to pay more... No I don't think we should.

-out of lurking mode for a moment-

If you are going to compare country to country gas prices the missing element that no one here is mentioning is taxes. Each country imposes their own set of taxes on gasoline. Taxes comprise a large percentage of the price of gasoline in many countries. I only came to this realization recently when I saw a chart showing price per gallon in various countries with and without taxes. I was stunned. I can't find the particular chart I saw, but a quick internet search gave me the following that illustrates this: From a chart from the International Energy Agency taken off this webpage:

Price per gallon in US dollars without taxes in the 2nd Quarter 2005: US $1.55 UK $1.51 Australia $1.57 Price per gallon in US dollars with taxes in the 2nd Quarter 2005: US $2.01 UK $5.73 Australia $2.96

Anyway, I am an American who just recently moved to London, and I don't own a car. So enough gas talk for me! I will post a separate post to ask the question that brought me to this group to begin with....

-stars

I don't mean to stir the pot, but the real problem with AMERICANS in general is that WE take everything for granted, brought on by the industrial movement in the 1800's. That leads to us being some of the most careless people in terms of care over pollution, over eating and weight to gluttony of our polictians for money.

Look at the current administration that just let out for break. They currently make 166,000 a year, work 3 days a week for 5 and half months and they just gave themselves another raise. and we wonder why we complain about the cost of things. It is so true the ole saying, the more we have the more we spend and want. However when you have greed at the top and there is no trickle down effect and thus we at the bottom will complain about the cost of everything. It is just human nature (like the weather) but we need to start believing as a country that there truly is a worldwide problem and things are not going to get better.

Don't even get me started on health care, insurance and unions!! This country may be the richest in terms of personal wealth per capita but still the majority of people cannot get or have proper pr needed health care.

And stars you are so right about taxes on fuel. being a truckdriver and knowing many who are owner operators, if even the average person only knew how much was paid not only at the pump, they would be totally aghast and stunned. And then wonder where all that money goes - HUMMM!!??

My 2 cents and will go get my bp down now.

OKC Dave

Check out my pix and crafts!

I was only joking RJ.

We use more oil than other countries because we only produce 20% of our electricity from nuclear energy while countries like France produce 80% of their electricity from nuclear energy.

You know I grew up 10 miles from TMI right? My dad worked there during the meltdown. So I'm not really a big fan of Nuclear... see I was a cancer patient... and so were most of my friends growing up... the ones that are still alive. Out of my neighborhood... 7 of my friends died before they were 30.

now if we could harness the wind more... I'd be happy.

I think the lack of mass transportation should also be considered. The US has so much rural area we have come to depend on individual transportation needs. Gone are the days of the Mom and Pop grocery stores in every neighborhood. Many families live several miles from the nearest town. I've never be on a public bus, subway or other form of public transportation. (Unless you count the trip by train to Virginia when I was

12 years old) There's not even a taxi in the entire county. We live in a rural area and a trip to the doctor is a 30 minute drive to the next town, as is the closest hospital, Wal-Mart or K-Mart. We try to pool out trips together whenever possible to save on gas. Over the last couple of years we've been able to cut back to two major trips out of town a month. DH uses more gas in his truck than I do in the van as he drives out of town to work every day. I'm down to about a tank a month and that says a lot for me. Sandy

Sandy - I agree with you on the Mass Transportation problem. Amtrak is SADLY underfunded, and would be an excellent mode of transportation if better teken care of. And my city has been fighting over what kind to put in,(monorail or light rail) but is it being built???? We should have built it 30 years ago!!!!

Ok - see, now I am on my soapbox. :)

I did want to point out though, that it is Wal-Mart (and similar stores) that is in big part ot blame for lack of Mom and Pop stores, and job outsourcing. And yet, they become the only resource for shopping in rural areas.

Ok, off my soap box. Where did I put that scrap project? :)

Sandy wrote:

I live in suburbs of Philly and some people from here including my husband travel to NYC on a daily basis for work. Amtrak costs $56 each way and you still have to drive to 30th street station or take septa to the hub adding to the cost. Once in NY you have to take a bus or a cab. Amtrak is not feasible for people around here, the weekly cost is over $500 and it is much cheaper for my husband and one of our neighbors to carpool rather than to take public transportation.

Walmart isn't too blame, the American consumer wants low prices and Walmart delivers what the consumer wants. Our lss closed up because the local AC Moore, Michaels and JoAnn stores are cheaper as well as the online stores that can buy in bulk and sell cheaper than the lss.

Years ago when I first bought a house in the Poconos there was only 1 local store to buy groceries and other needs unless you were willing to drive for

20 miles just to pick up a jar of peanut butter. They knocked your head off with their prices charging twice as much as I could buy it for here or at the grocery store 20 miles away. I was thrilled when 2 grocery store chains built stores within a few miles and not at all saddened by the close of that store.

Well, sadly the whole world is looking at an energy crisis pretty soon, no matter how you look at it. Our fuell prices here, went up with over 50% in this year! Which affects the inflation rate pretty badly, since everything needs to be transported. Our government have started developing a bio-fuel plant a few months ago, which will hopefully be producing in three years time. We can only hope this option will be kinder to our pockets and the poor environment.

Judy, SA