Apparently America still doesn't get it

Last I heard we (US & Europe) live in a free society where we are able to choose what we want to drive.

If someone wants to drive a 6.7 litre stupid gas guzzler to drive to commute in then fine, that's there choice. When you hear them whinge about the cost of filling their tank - that's the time to have a sly grin.

Don't try and force their hand. Let them spend 3x as much on petrol than we do. More fool them.

 

sorry but watching someone filling their SUV or whatever while i subsidize that is not acceptable to me.

we need to pay the real price at the pump and allow people who use their vehicles for work purposes to get tax breaks for that fuel. but enforcement, cheating, corruption would only allow those who have money, find a way to not spend that money

 

You are so right about this. The indirect cost of gasoline (Healthcare, Wars, Spill Clean up, etc...) is several folds the price of a gallon of gas. I just read this and I think some in the forum may have already watch the video.

US gas is artificially cheap: What we don't pay for at the pump | California Watch

 

"we need to pay the real price at the pump and allow people who use their vehicles for work purposes to get tax breaks for that fuel."

Tax breaks would just add bureaucracy and encourage abuse. If fuel is expensive people will use it wisely and efficiently, and pass on the cost where possible. It is inane to ask me to pay taxes so that someone working for me can buy subsidized fuel and maybe pass the savings back to me.

 

Sorry, Grumpy. If we were paying anywhere close to the "true" cost of the fuel I would agree. But we are not and the extra cost of their selfish and perhaps even irresponsible decision is being paid by everyone. Perhaps you have a different slant on things given that fuel in the UK is much higher, so economics over there are already much more realistic than here...

 

Maybe. Talking of which, I had a customer in tonight who was complaining about the high cost of petrol and how they were thinking of trading one of their 4 litre SUVs in for something more economical as it is costing them well over £100 ($160) to fill it! (They liked the Prius too )

Was this your average Joe? Nope, it was the wife of a multi - millionnaire! Sure they can afford to fill the SUV no problems, but I guess £100 is £100 and wasting money for no good reason is a bad thing even if you have lots of it.

So it would appear that a high petrol price does indeed affect consumers decisions, even those who you wouldn't expect to be affected.

 

Agreed. Many of the monstrosity class SUV drivers aren't even aware that their decision is selfish or irresponsible. Some can't be convinced, no mater how hard you try. It's crazy.

Since there seems to be a lack of public service announcements or anything of the sort to educate the American public, it seems the only way to influence their behavior is either much higher fuel costs (people here get up in arms when gas hits $4/gallon, which still seems not high enough to make a huge dent in monstrosity class SUVs running around) or other burdens such as some sort of huge tax on them, mandatory extra driver training, lower speed limits only applicable to them, etc.

Here in the US, for whatever reason, so many people overspend and owe a ton of $, so it's questionable whether many of the full-sized SUVs drivers can actually "afford" them.

 

Along these lines, a post on TiVoCommunity led me to Financially-Fragile Americans Lack Emergency Savings - FoxBusiness.com. Yeah yeah... it's from Fox Business.

 

If you use your vehicle for business purposes, you already get a tax break. Transportation costs are legitimate business expenses and fully deductible.

Tom

 

'Keep on rockin in the free world...got fuel to burn, got roads to drive....'

 

Am gonna be contraversial here;

Maybe you're going to be the oil burning, polluting backwater of the 21st century whilst the rest of the world and more importantly, Asia go the way of EV's and clean energy production?

Perhaps in 50 years a child in China would look on in astonishment at petrol powered gas guzzlers still being driven in America in the same way that 10 years ago an American child would look on in amusement at the steam trains being used in China?

Just a thought?

 

gc, i was just wondering because we got our heating oil price for the coming season. what do you pay over there?

 

I'm sure there's an ulterior motive to you asking me this lol but I'll answer anyhow. We pay about £0.60p a litre which works out about £2.22/$3.54 a US gallon. I would add that most households do not use heating oil to heat their homes as it is too expensive. (Heating oil isn't taxed anywhere near as much as road fuel - if at all - so probably matches the US price).

Most households use mains supplied natural gas though, with electric heating coming in second. It is very unlikely you'll come across oil fired heating systems in towns and cities.

 

i believe you mean $3.35/gal.? my 'ulterior motive' is just curiosity. we paid $3.00/gal. last year and it will be up to $4.00 this coming year. i was just wondering about the taxes and all the talk of subsidizing energy by not including all the costs of producing it. thanks!

 

I don't see that as controversial, I see it as the truth. That is exactly what is going to happen unless some tough love happens. The US already isn't #1 at anything important and is near if not at the bottom of all other 1st world countries with respect to important topics like healthcare. The problem is very few americans travel outside of their bubble. They live and die within a few miles of where they were born.

As of February 2011, only 20%-30% of americas even have passports. And only a couple of americans I know have traveled outside of the US. And the others rarely if ever even leave the state. It is an extremely isolated life for many of these people. The "world" news is usually a 30 second or 60 second blurb, and most of it is spent on american things. "An american was killed in country X". I bring this up, because you cannot change what you don't know. Since they don't know about the rest of the world, they don't have anything to compare it against. So nothing will change here and the rest of the world will pass it by.

 

Yeah you're right I meant £3.35 lol

Should have put a smiley sarcastic face on my comment about ulterior motive as it wasn't a dig.

Apparantly the UK has some of the cheapest oil products in Europe BEFORE tax. Heating oil is taxed at about 5% I think. We also have 'red diesel' for off road use - ie farmers, construction etc, where it isn't taxed much either. I think that works out about £0.60p a litre too. It is dyed red for a reason and there are massive penalties for using it in a road vehicle.

 

I am so glad there are so many people on this forum who know what's best for everyone else.

:cheer2:

 

It just takes a bit of uncommon sense and research. Too many improperly educated people in the country.

"Gas fumes are not harmful. That's a bunch of liberal treehuggin BS!"

 

no dig taken! it is interesting that we seem to take energy costs and uses similarly, while europeans(and others?) differentiate between uses and taxes. we do a little, but not much.

 

Legal, yes. Legitimate ? That depends on your POV regarding subsidy. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. I want *all* oil subsidies removed.