Yuma simon,

Please dont make me sick! do you KNOW that you pay less then HALF of the prices in France or most places in europe???
The USA price is at the same level as most developping country's in Africa!

So a strike in the US?? I'd say pump up the price overthere and bring it up to international level.

But of course the realities are somewhat different if you live here.
You can't get fuel to go and visit a relative in hospital, or get to the shops to get your provisions, or get to work to earn money, or the woodman can't deliver your wood so you have no fuel for the fire.
I should point out that scenario is not here at the moment, or even on the current horizon, and hopefully the dispute will all be settled shortly.

I remember the last big strike in 2000 and it was tough ...

Currently here we're all conserving fuel as best we can - jerry cans are NOT allowed to be filled up ... which means filling up and then siphoning it off at home to give to neighbours!!!

Some fuel around but we're not sure if/when they'll be filling up the tanks again at the supermarkets/service stations ..

Kira

Fuel at our local supermarket today in the Charente whereas yesterday there was none to be found at several local supermarkets, so maybe the worst is over.
Only maybe of course as this was not a scientific, conclusive study I'm afraid.

An American moaning about fuel prices ? You don't know how lucky you are. Your government is so scared about fuel prices there would be a 2nd revolution if you had to pay anything even close to what we do ! Try doubling what you pay and then add a bit extra just for a laugh....

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Honda CBR 1100 XX, Yamaha XTZ 660, Harris Special

Brittany still full of fuel, but all ports blocaded so no getting in. Also a nice lot of tire burning on the Routes Nationales, and the farmers are out too.

Still I did get a free bag of artichokes this morning to go with my free scallops.

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We are experiencing dramatic price increases on gasoline and staple food products that the food producers are blaming on fuel price increases. Plus, we are told that we are in a recession, so our wages are staying stagnant--it is worse than it appears, whether we are paying half price or not. We have actually achieved for the first time, the actual declining of wages, where we are earning less than our parents did--so yes, shoot the price of gasoline up dramatically, while the oil companies are flaunting record profits, and just sit back and think "wow, I am paying less for gasoline than others..." I don't think so!

today in britain we had an half hearted attempt at a protest on the price of fuel. lorry drivers doing 40 mph down the motorway in convoy in the slow lane! they're always in the slow lane and everyone drove past as normal!
what a waste of time with no disruption whatsoever! i offered to go block the other 2 lanes at 40mph also but the boss said no as it's not good for the public image! what an arsehole! he spends about £100,000 a week on diesel and he's not even protesting about the price/tax hikes.
britain needs to get together and stop being lemmings! at the last fuel protest in london i was delivering in london and did'nt know it was even going on!
that's my little rant and now off to bed for dreams of cheap petrol
allez les francais!

The usa government is spending huge amounts of money ( more than the rest of teh world put together) on miltary hardware developement. It is spending money it does not have and just printing more. It does not Buy oil, it pays for it with a dollar IOU. The consequence is teh perceived value of teh dollar is diminuishing. Hence you have to pay more numbers of dollars for the same real thing. A real thing is a potato, sheep or litre of fuel. A dollar note is an IOU that may or may not be honored so has a percieved value but no real value of itself. Most other currencies are linked to teh dollar so are experiencing the same effects. You need to re-align your thinking, goods are not getting expensive, money is getting cheap. Governments love cheap money, because they pay out less in social payments such as pensions, and earn more because the tax thresholds are worth less. For instance, if you pay 10% sales tax and a lettuce costs 50 cents, the tax is 5 cents to teh government. If the lettuce costs 5 dollars it is 50 cents to teh government.. They benefit from low value currencies and budget with inflation ( read devaluation of currency) in mind. The UK is waiting for teh euro and pound to get close to parity then they will join the euro area. This will effectively reduce pensions and every other asset you might have by 40% and provide them with a whole host of benefits.

The one secret weapon that we Americans have, and our government needs to really watch out for, is a huge arsenal of privately owned firearms. There are many back-hills ultra-paranoid, religious nutcases who, just a couple of years ago, sounded crazy, but now I am starting to hear the once embedded messages of them.

I know that once the threshold is reached, I wouldn't hesitate to use my firearms, if necessary, to keep food on the table. Yes, it would take alot to reach that point, but I am starting to see the what "they" see.

Update:

The farmers are up in arms about fuel; there was a report in the paper on Friday; whether this will lead to further shortages is unclear at the moment but I'm filling up regularly now in case I get stranded & can't get to work ...

Will keep you posted!

Kira

The USA has cheap gas because it has little tax on it. Gas is a commodity and traded on an open market dose not matter who byes it UK, France, USA or China.

The same people saying the USA will be paying $4.00 to 5.00 in 2008 said it will be $8.00 to 9.00 in 2009. That may ham string the USA economy not being able to afford to move products. Not even USA government military spending will get us out of this one. Cheap dollers or not (but a nice little war may hide it for a little bit).

A civil war is not going to amount to much from the nut jobs We got them there not well armed or trained a few tanks helos and planes and there done. All bark no bite. (or anti armor rockets and aircraft). Been around them there way is not going to work a gun dose not make you powerfull.

The USA government has done same thing the French one is doing now. There is plenty of gas there gust causing unrest shifting the blame to the producers, the commodity market, the consumers who ever. Boosting the price on it taxing the hell of it and lining there pockets with billions. Its the rich getting richer crushing the poor under there heal and blaming it all on some one else. You will be trading your old cars for new shinny high miles per gallon ones next. There will investigations by the government (the ones making all this happen) and low and behold they find nothing or pin it all who evere they dont like right now.

A little jaded? yah I am. Seen it all done seen all the people fall for it they wave the flag with out a shot fired then wonder what hapend when the check comes in.

JUST GOT THIS FROM FRIENDS ... BY e-mail, seems to be making the rounds ...

Préavis de grève national le lundi 16 Juin 2008.

Il n'y a qu'une façon de faire pression : la MOBILISATION de tous les automobilistes Français qu'y on vu leur 'budget' gasoil - essence être multiplié par 2 ou 3 en 6 mois !

Comme à chaque révolution, ce qui fait notre force c'est notre nombre.

Nous allons bloquer la France entière et prendre le gouvernement en otage !!

Qui : Tous les automobilistes FRANCAIS.

Quoi : Blocage des routes, autoroutes, chemin de fer...

Comment : Des centaines de voiture à l'arrêt sur toutes les routes de France devrait marcher aussi bien que des camions, des tracteurs ou des bateaux.

Pourquoi : Le gasoil à 1€.

Grace à internet, ce mail peut faire le tour de France en quelques minutes, alors au boulot les 'Vache à lait', faite marcher le 'Transférer ce mail'

Bonne chance à tous.

Yep - same thing happened in the UK a few years ago - the Government encouraged us all to buy diesel cars (when diesel was significantly cheaper than petrol) under the auspicion that they were more economic (despite the fact most diesel engined cars cost significantly more than the petrol engined equivalent) so we all did...

And now diesel is 15+% more than petrol on the forecourts, and the cost per litre has increased 30% in the past six months - it's a f**king scandal!

The dollar price for fuel proves how much it actually costs... the rest is the greedy Euro Governments creaming off the tax, and even having the gaul to say it's for 'environmental reasons'... like I say, it's a f**king scandal!!!

xxx

Why is VAT a far worse tax than fuel tax?

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If you think you are too small to make a difference you have never spent the night with a mosquito.