Think you're paying at the pump?
This chart is from CNN's website. Gas prices around the world (in US dollars per gallon). Pretty astonishing collection of data: Gasoline prices in the United States, which have recently hit record highs, are actually much lower than in many countries. Drivers in some European cities, like Amsterdam and Oslo, are paying nearly 3 times more than those in the U.S. The main factor in price disparities between countries is government policy, according to AirInc, a company that tracks the cost of living in various places around the world. Many European nations tax gasoline heavily, with taxes making up as much as 75 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, said a spokesperson for AirInc. Netherlands Amsterdam $6.48 Norway Oslo $6.27 Italy Milan $5.96 Denmark Copenhagen $5.93 Belgium Brussels $5.91 Sweden Stockholm $5.80 United Kingdom London $5.79 Germany Frankfurt $5.57 France Paris $5.54 Portugal Lisbon $5.35 Hungary Budapest $4.94 Luxembourg $4.82 Croatia Zagreb $4.81 Ireland Dublin $4.78 Switzerland Geneva $4.74 Spain Madrid $4.55 Japan Tokyo $4.24 Czech Republic Prague $4.19 Romania Bucharest $4.09 Andorra $4.08 Estonia Tallinn $3.62 Bulgaria Sofia $3.52 Brazil Brasilia $3.12 Cuba Havana $3.03 Taiwan Taipei $2.84 Lebanon Beirut $2.63 South Africa Johannesburg $2.62 Nicaragua Managua $2.61 Panama Panama City $2.19 Russia Moscow $2.10 Puerto Rico San Juan $1.74 Saudi Arabia Riyadh $0.91 Kuwait Kuwait City $0.78 Egypt Cairo $0.65 Nigeria Lagos $0.38 Venezuela Caracas $0.12 In a few Latin America and Middle-East nations, such as Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, oil is produced by a government-owned company and local gasoline prices are kept low as a benefit to the nation's citizens, he said. All prices updated March, 2005. Source: CNN http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/
Politics - 7 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
The wacko european countries end up forcing people to take public transportation and make everyone lived in crowed, rat-raced cities because the governments keep the price of gasoline so high. And, it destroys the economies of small towns by making it hard for people to travel.
2 :
Yes...we are paying at the pumps. We have the ability to produce our own oil, but for some reason there are people in congress who won't let us get it (I'm looking in the Democrats direction).
3 :
Man has the intelligence and mechanical technology and capabilities to invent (and it has been invented) vehicles that burn on natural solar energy, and the reason this hasn't been brought to fruition is because there is no money to be made and money is the reason we stay trapped in using gas for our cars.
4 :
Right, but almost all these countries have comprehensive public transportation systems which are inexpensive and run frequently and reliably. The cities are also constructed much more closely together and in smaller areas, unlike the US, which makes walking and biking much more feasible. A few decades ago, GM illegally purchased all the mass transit systems in the US and systematically shut them down so that people would be forced to buy their cars. That's when our real problems started! GM was slapped with an anti-trust lawsuit but the people responsible were only charged a few dollars each; the entire corporation was fined $1,000.
5 :
FWIW, US gas prices have not yet hit a higher record then that from the early 70's, in inflation-adjusted dollars.
6 :
Dude, what's you question?
7 :
The people in Venezuela got it made!
