> So maybe you guys in the US don't have it quite so bad - you still have
> some of the cheapest fuel in the world, for reasons I'll leave for
> another time.
Reason? Taxes!
As someone mentioned previously the real way to compare gas prices is
price minus all taxes. What is the price in South Africa, the UK and
Canada minus all taxes?
Only a very small part of US gas prices are taxes. The rest of the
price goes to pay actual costs of procurement and production, plus
setting all time oil company profit records, each broken in the
successive year by ever greater profit margins.
I would not mind fuel price increases if part of that increase didn't
include an increase in energy company profit margins. I mind it when it
is raw capitalism at its worst providing a vehicle by which the oil rich
get richer paid for by the American middle and lower classes.
There is golden lining in every disaster. At one end of the economy it
is poor looters trying to get things they could not otherwise afford to
buy. At the other end of the economy it is the big corporate looters
hiding increased profit margins in disaster caused cost increases and
robbing big government rebuilding contracts. One group counts its gains
in terms of food, kitchen appliances, clothing and furniture. The other
group counts its gains by the tens of millions of dollars.
Maybe it is past time for ethics to be required ongoing classes in
American schools.
TeriAnn
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