The "how much are you paying for gas?" thread

[richkulach]

$1.399 a liter here today, cost me $95 to fill up my little old Dakota from1/8 tank. Good thing my job pays for my mileage (OK, kilometerage, but that just doesn't sound right).

Rich

[hardrockcafe]

wish my job would pay for mine...i drive 30 miles each way 5-day's a week to my job....HATE IT!!!

[mrmac74]

You're all lucky over there, come live in the UK, we are paying the equivilent of $9.70 a gallon.


Not Good!

[Jose G.]

Jun 15, 2008 13:35:45 GMT -8 mrmac74 said:

You're all lucky over there, come live in the UK, we are paying the equivilent of $9.70 a gallon.


Not Good!

YIKES!

[hardrockcafe]

9.70 a gallon....NO WAY....that is crazy

[Mightyfanatic]

Actually, what mrmac74 (from the UK) and richkulach (from Canada) are saying is MUCH more in line with the rest of the world (not counting the major Oil producing nations). Europe has been paying about $8.00 (equivalent) or more for years. Here's an article from CNN/money:


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite daily headlines bemoaning record gas prices, the U.S. is actually one of the cheaper places to fill up in the world.

Out of 155 countries surveyed, U.S. gas prices were the 45th cheapest, according to a recent study from AIRINC, a research firm that tracks cost of living data.

The difference is staggering. As of late March, U.S. gas prices averaged $3.45 a gallon. That compares to over $8 a gallon across much of Europe.

The U.S. has always fought to keep gas prices low, and the current debate among presidential candidates on how to keep them that way has been fierce.

But those cheap gas prices - which Americans have gotten used to - mean they feel price spikes like the ones we're experiencing now more acutely than citizens from other nations which have had historically more expensive fuel.

Cheap gas prices have also lulled Americans into a cycle of buying bigger cars and bigger houses further away from their work - leaving them more exposed to rising prices, some experts say.

Price comparisons are not all created equal. Comparing gas prices across nations is always difficult. For starters, the AIRINC numbers don't take into account different salaries in different countries, or the different exchange rates. The dollar has lost considerable ground to the euro recently. Because oil is priced in dollars, rising oil prices aren't as hard on people paying with currencies which are stronger than the dollar, as they can essentially buy more oil with their money as the dollar falls in value.

And then there's the varying distances people drive, the public transportation options available, and the different services people get in exchange for high gas prices. For example, Europe's stronger social safety net, including cheaper health care and higher education, is paid for partly through gas taxes.

Gas price: It's all about government policy. Gasoline costs roughly the same to make no matter where in the world it's produced, according to John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute. The difference in retail costs, he said, is that some governments subsidize gas while others tax it heavily.

In many oil producing nations gas is absurdly cheap. In Venezuela it's 12 cents a gallon. In Saudi Arabia it's 45.

The governments there forego the money from selling that oil on the open market - instead using the money to make their people happy and encourage their nations' development.

Subsidies, many analysts say, are encouraging rampant demand in these countries, pushing up the price of oil worldwide.

In the U.S., the federal tax on gas is about 18 cents a gallon, pretty low by international standards.

But those relatively low gas taxes make it hard now for Americans to deal with gas prices that have risen from around $1 to over $3 a gallon in the last seven years.

"Everybody pays more, but the U.S. pays more in absolute terms," said Lee Shipper, a visiting scholar at the University of California Berkeley's Transportation Center. If you're already paying $4 in taxes, said Schipper, then an extra $2 a gallon isn't that big of a deal.

[hardrockcafe]

filled up my little car today for $50.00 exactly....

[Mightyfanatic]

By the way, my wife and I don't pay anything for gas .... when we were living in the metro Boston area and in New Hampshire, we got accustomed to doing without a car (thanks to great mass transit). Now, having moved to a small town on the West Virginia/Kentucky border for the past several years, we've continued being "car-free" (since we both work from home ... as long as we have a high speed link to the Net ... we're at work!) But we sympathize with you guys... (we still have high energy bills!). Yeah, depending on cabs/mass transit might be a pain sometimes but when we see the rising cost of gas ... we don't regret our decision !

[sam71167]

$3.59 here in central Alabama.

[tpop35]

Sept 11, 2008 12:33:56 GMT -8 sam71167 said:

$3.59 here in central Alabama.

so you're the one coming up to Huntsville, stealing my mugg thunder. See and I thought I was the only one here living in Alabama. Oh and in terms of gas we got you beat by 4 cents.

And my response to the whole argument of other countries paying more for gas than the U.S. is that the British pound and the Euro are worth more then the U.S dollar from thirty to seventy cents more an that is just for today. The dollar has gained against the Euro but fallen against the Pound.

[schrodingerscat]

$3.85 here in Cen-Cal. Lowest it's been for 6 months.

[MightyBeaArthur]

$3.80/gallon in midwest illinois/southeastern iowa but thanks to my pirate car, the YARis, and living above the place I work i'm not affected to much by gas prices...only time it bothers me is when i'm out mugging.

[tpop35]

Ok, gas has shot up to $4.19 in some parts of Huntsville. And there are lines as wells as rumors that gas may get as high as $5.00 in some parts.

[true]

I gotta fill'er up today after work at about 3.80/gal. I guess that's decent compared to the rest. Gas is still 4.30 here in the city where I work.

Drill baby drill! haha jk

[daybringer]

Got it for $1.34 a few weeks ago. I was so amazed it droped so low.