Friday, September 02, 2005
Though Katrina has reaped a tragedy which we can all relate to, I am more interested in the American reponse to having to pay more for petrol. Not because as some people are writing {Spiked: After Katrina another putride deluge } it serves them right for being the major contributor to global warming, but because it helps them to think about whether they might be through having to consider travel arrangments in a way many of them might not have had to before. This, of course, comes from wanting a level playing field: I can't see why I pay $7 a gallon and they have been paying less than a third of that. Indeed I can't see why I am paying 0.90p a litre and the Spanish are paying two-thirds of that.
When I see young boys who can't even afford the petrol let alone the car insurance driving around willy-nilly, I know in my heart they would continue to do so if it went up to £7 a gallon. People want the freedom that the car has provided. Now they have tasted the freedom ( the best part of 50 years of mass car use in the west), you'll have to shoot them to curbe their car use.
Part of the response is in articles such as:
Gas price cutbacks extend to boaters which shows plus ca change plus cest le meme chose: people always think of themselves first, quite naturally, and are rarely confronted with the need to consider "The Needs of Strangers" (Ignatieff).
That's why the wars the U.S. is having to fight now are a good thing (if war can ever be so described): they are - or ought by now to be - learning about some of the rest of the world which they were partially cocooned from by their affluence.
Chavez offers cheap gas to poor in U.S.
is another rsponse! Since the guy got put on the death list by Pat the preacher, this is funny.
Petrol prices in the U.S.
Gaspricewatch
shows
* highest, average and lowest price
fueleconomy.gov = > neworleansgasprices.com
In the UK we are currently paying $7 a gallon
Average price of Unleaded 95 petrol in the UK is: 89.7p
fromWhatprice.co.uk
European price comparison:
see-search.com
Who benefits from rising gas prices?
Europeans pay more for gas, but they also receive additional services from the gas taxes.
What exactly do UK citizens get from petrol tax?