Gasoline: Going Up, But Still Cheap

There’s nothing which says more about the insularity of Americans than their

reaction to gasoline prices. Any truly global citizen would take one look at

a price of $3.22

per gallon and wonder at how dirt-cheap it is. (Well, two looks, actually:

first she’d probably convert it to 85 cents per liter.)

CNN helpfully puts US prices into a global

context. Wikipedia helpfully puts US prices into a global

context. (The CNN page is out of date; thanks to commenter Matthew for the

better link.) In Japan gasoline costs $3.84 per gallon; in Ireland it’s $4.78;

in France it’s $5.54; in the UK it’s $5.79; and in Holland it’s $6.48. Belgium,

Finland, Germany, Norway, Turkey, and the UK all have gasoline prices near or

over $7 per gallon. The US has, by some margin, the cheapest

gasoline in the developed world.

Now it’s true that the cost of driving 100 miles is not commensurately lower

in the US, because Americans love their gas guzzlers. And it’s also true that

America’s wide-open spaces do mean that Americans are likely to drive many more

miles per year than, say, the Dutch. But even so, if you’re in favor of a carbon

tax, as a majority of economists seem to be, then you should by rights be very

happy about rising gasoline prices, which have essentially the same effect without

having to implement any legislation.

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