What are you Paying for Gasoline? Petrol Prices Around the World

[jaimezepeda]

I filled up last night for $1.66 in Southaven, MS (NW corner of the state).

I am so glad that my 4 door Honda Accord gets 30 miles/gallon WITH the A/C on .

 

[Bill Pflanz]

The following article does not directly involve gasoline prices but I thought it says a lot about how we expect everything and whine when we don't get it. The author should have added use of energy also. I am sorry but I did not keep the author's name so I am not sure of the source.

"Boomers have gotten our way ever since we arrived in this world, and the onset of gray hair, bifocals, and arthritis is not going to moderate our unswerving self-indulgence. We are the same people, after all, who forced the lowering of the drinking age when we were young, so we could drink, and forced it back up when we got older, so our kids couldn't. On top of that, we're used to the best of everything, and plenty of it. We weren't dubbed the Me Generation because we neglect our own needs, Junior. If politicians think the current geezers are greedy, they ain't seen nothin' yet.

But responsible middle-aged sorts may yet be brought to their senses when they realize that their usual impulse to get all they can will sooner or later collide with another boomer obsession: the insatiable desire to furnish our kids with every advantage known to humanity. Load Social Security with more obligations than it can bear, and our precious offspring will be squashed under the weight. To fund all the obligations of the Social Security system, payroll taxes will have to more than double by 2040—on top of whatever it costs to buy all those prescription drugs. At that point, our children will realize the trick we've pulled and start to hate our guts. That would be a cruel blow to a generation that thinks of itself as the most wonderful parents in history.

To avoid that fate, boomers need to recognize the need to stop writing checks that today's youngsters will have to cash. With the eager help of our own parents, we've created an entitlement that is fast becoming unaffordable. To bring Social Security into conformity with reality, we'll have to resign ourselves to a higher retirement age reflecting our prospective vigor and life expectancy. We'll have to accept more stringent controls on Medicare spending and take more responsibility for our own medical needs. We'll have to abandon our assumption that the point of the health-care system is to keep each of us alive forever. At some point—don't worry, not anytime soon—we will have to embrace a duty to stop functioning as a fiscal burden on our children and start serving as a nutritional resource for worms."

Source unknown

 

[engjane]

Thank you Bill - that is an eloquent way of versing my thoughts.

 

[Al Dyer]

As to gas prices,

Currently $1.83. will probably go up a dime before the formal weekend starts at 5:00 pm.

As to the other comments, too political for me!:mg:

Al...

 

[mickeld - 2005]

I'm to lazy to do all the conversions, so I'll give it to you in the CND way...
Gas price around 80 cents/litre....figure it out yourself what that is in gallons and in US$. I'm pretty sure that its more that the Americans are paying.

My Aunt just came back from Holland, and she said they pay well over $2 US for gas....i'm assuming thats in per gallon

 

[Swanee]

Mobil station in Yokohama, Japan

4.311 USD/gal

 

[engjane]

Apologies

I apologise profusely in advance but I just have to get this off my chest…. :truce:

The fluctuations in price of petrol in Canada are ridiculous….Im presuming the fluctuations exist in the USA aswell but I have no knowledge/evidence.
Anyway, listen to this little tale and you’ll understand what Im talking about

Early May 2004 petrol sat at about 75c per litre in the town I live in (Stayner, Ontario).
In the following week, it crept up until May 22nd when it was about 90c a litre. That weekend of course, is Victoria Day and everyone gets on the road so I can see why someone (garage owners? Governement? Oil barons?) wants to get a bit of extra profit from the poor unsuspecting travellers.
Within three weeks, the price had plummeted back down to 75c a litre and it has held around there since then.

This morning, image my horror when I see that, overnight, the price has gone from 73.5 to 82.9c per litre. :mg:

What on earth is going on?
How can it possibly change that much?

If the price of fuel changed by 5p overnight in the UK, there would be uproar…..in fact, its probably unlikely that the price has changed by that much in the past year…let alone day!
And we all just accept it?


Come one people…..we’re being seriously ripped off…..with all the clever bods in this forum, we should be able to come up with a plan to try and impact this?
Anyone game enough to start the suggestions rolling?

 

[Al Rosen]

Come one people…..we’re being seriously ripped off…..with all the clever bods in this forum, we should be able to come up with a plan to try and impact this?
Anyone game enough to start the suggestions rolling?

If it weren't for the fact that commercial use is greater than private consumption, I would suggest we give up driving for one day a week.

 

[engjane]

If it weren't for the fact that commercial use is greater than private consumption, I would suggest we give up driving for one day a week.

I do work with one chap who doesnt drive, he cycles daily plus I suspect he cycles a derned sight further than most of the people who drive!

I, of course, have an excuse, cos I live 20 kms from work

Seriously though, if enough people did it, it would have an effect.The other option is to push car pooling.
We had a refinery strike in the UK in about 2000 and that forced a lot of us to team up as we only had so much fuel availability. Its a great way to make friends too

 

[gerrybean]

In Melbourne the price generally jumps about $A0.10 every Thursday evening (in time for the weekend) and slowly drops back most of the ten cents over the next week. This weekly cycle has been going on for years and rarely changes with the main exceptions being predictable (the price jumps on Wednesday evening before Easter). I get around it by trying to buy petrol on Wednesday or Thursday but it is really annoying if I forget! We all moan and complain about it but the big chains of petrol stations just shrug and carry on.

I have received a few emails recently encouraging people to boycott the biggest petrol station chains to try to bring the prices down. Sounds good but when you look at these emails closely, each one targets different chains and the cynic in me says they were probably started by one of the big chains.

Is it just me or are the governments we elect becoming irrelevant when global companies do what they want.....