If we now remove your rose tinted glasses, you will see that the average price of fuel in the US is currently running at $3.60 for petrol (gas to you) and $4.02 for diesel a gallon.

Now as you Americans are awkward, and can't adopt anything without messing with it, we have to convert your gallon to ours.

This brings your fuel prices in to $4.33 for petrol and $4.84 for diesel per imp/gallon.

Convert this by the current exchange rate, makes your fuel £2.82 for petrol and £3.15 for diesel if it were here in the UK

Now our fuel prices are currently running at £5.86 for petrol and £6.22 for diesel, and as every commodity has to be transported in some way, this is what is crippling the UK (and European) population/industry.

So you can take your tin hat off and get an idea of the cost of this, try putting your fuel costs up to our rate, that means your petrol would now cost $8.99 and your diesel $9.55 (imp gal) or $7.48 petrol $7.95 diesel (us/gal)

Let's see what that does to the cost of your BigMac's......

Now you know why Europe & the EU are in deep s....


Rob

Not so simple, I'm afraid. You have to look at the distances involved and the total cost to business or the individual. You will find that the average Joe in the UK spends the same proportion of his salary on fuel as the average Joe in the US.

I think that's kinda how the UK Govt decides on the price of fuel there.

Average in UK is 12,000 pa, average in US is 15,000 pa (both taken from gov web sites)

I don't think your average person grasps how much this is effecting our economy. EVERYTHING has to be transported. The cost of running haulage has doubled fuel wise, and along with other changes to emmission control and taxation on road vehicles, the extra costs are driving up the price of everyday goods.

Oh yeah you don't have road tax in the US do you? how do you fancy paying your gov another $600 a year for a round paper disc for your windscreen that entitles you to use the road?

Your quite right about the gov controling the tax though, however I think the higher tax rates here are more to do with a welfare state that is becoming ever more un-sustainable and abused by outsiders. But thats another story.

Rob

Your average Herbert is better off in Europe than North America, in my (extensive) experience of being poor and well off on both continents. How much is it worth to have healthcare?

Totally agree, we are in a much better position with our healthcare, it's the envy the world over. And here in lies the problem, when it's become the 'norm' from people form other counties to come here to use it.

I'm not saying anyone should be denied medical attention if they are in need of it, but coming to the UK to have a baby as the airfare here is cheaper than the medical bills back home is frankly taking the p.

Do you want to go down the housing and benefits route too? or is this going off topic too much?


Rob

amazing the disconnect between cause and effect. world's economy is HUGE. logic dictates it would take something equally large to disrupt it in such a short span of time.

unfortunately connecting the dots requires one to think globally. kind of hard to do when one's focus is paycheck to paycheck.

there is no other event large enough within the time frame before almost collapse of world's economies. Oil prices doubling overnight, then proceeding to climb to almost triple prices pre-Katrina.

resulting in the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world!
yet folks are still having trouble making the connection

__________________
R90S, R80G/S PD

Up to now, the POLL RESULTS are:

32 votes YES, it was planned (66%)
16 votes NO, it was not (33%)

However, public voters are 10 people saying YES vs. 9 people saying NO. I recall another poll where there were more votes than actual voters, I wonder if that could be the case too. But anyway, it seems that the majority thinks that YES, it was planned, or that those voters are more active (more probable).

Of course, we all here are very fortunate, we do not belong to the big suffering bunch in the 3rd world, but that’d be another topic/discussion.

So, I think those called “causes” (as oil price increases or whatever else) are “means”, while those “triggers” (Katrina) an unreal “excuse”, appearing all blurry and messy behind long articles written by those technocrats… Thus, only one thing looks crystal-clear, the “goal”: fill your own pockets and nothing would be easier/quicker than at others expense. Of course, profit is the reason for an entrepreneurial activity, needless to say, but some cases go a little too far now, I’d say. Your pension fund collapsed? What a shame, it can always happen… Your Social Security System is broke? It was mismanaged by the previous corrupted government, such a bad luck… It seems that we shrug our shoulders and accept it, and I wonder: why?

It seems that nowadays there’s no apparent alternative to our economic system, so there may be some protests, but no big revolutions and therefore less to worry about squeezing the population. It’s clear we are not all going to become communists. No counterbalance, that’s never good (and I am not pro-communism).

But then you read about those semi-secret Bilderberg meetings that even appear in the newspapers and you say: what do the richest/most powerful people on Earth have to talk about when all the talks content absolutely private? I heard it’s all about the future of the global economy. Is that a sort of global masonry or what? It seems they do not represent anyone’s interest other than their own, which is worrying when ministers, etc attend them…

So, if I can forecast a real state bubble in Spain, why wouldn’t they forecast (or plan?) a global collapse? I wonder if they would say: “we have to get ready for what’s coming (and make profit of other’s looses)”; or whatever they have to talk about, that I don’t know, but I assume they do discuss if the colour of the sofas matches the curtains. Furthermore, I think that many of these groups/societies sell values of solidarity (I think masons do, but I don’t know). But what is solidarity only in the frame os a close group? Discrimination against the rest, I assume.

I am probably boring, since I am already boring myself, but the current world would look cool if you watch the MTV, but to me, the future stinks too bad.

true da... fuel prices are the direct reason for our global recession. amazing how few words in print point this out. even more amazing how folks that I'm in contact with also deny this.

to put thing in perspective and why I went thru the ropes, bringing out the big mac index and a basket of goods is the true measure of buying power.

before Katrina, fuel prices in the USA was $1-$1.29. in UK prices were already hitting $3 gal. so prices more than doubled here in US, before recently going down $1 gal to $3gal. the same thing happened to entire world... fuel prices more than doubled almost overnight.

tin hats back on.... IMHO BIG oil companies have teams of economist that forecast how hard to squeeze the world economies. it's my belief that BIG oil doesn't want to kill the golden goose... only fleece it.

the world was on the verge of a second dip in this recession. before BIG oil deciding to pull fuel prices back. due to BIG oil's virtual monopoly position. they control prices at will ... no collaboration needed, BIG oil controls regions of the world. from well head to gas station pumps. the thing that's been missing is real competition in the oil industry.

in the USA, refineries in a very short time span went from large number of owners to a tiny handful of owners due to mass consolidation of refineries. their net profits shot up by 30x+ so they were forced to go on an acquisition binge to shelter those profits from taxes.

IMHO the thing they fear is politicians. for they changed the rules allowing them to merge back together. for all practical purposes, Standard Oil is back together. Politicians can change the rules again and break back apart BIG oil.

the other thing they fear is squeezing too hard killing the golden goose, bringing about a total collapse of world economies ... aka 1929 all over again.

__________________
R90S, R80G/S PD