Re: Gas Prices

["Jay Mackro" <jmackro@domain.elided>]

A few people have noted that Europeans pay much more
for gasoline, and have suggested that the current price
increase we have seen recently in the States is somehow
"deserved", or at least that we Yanks should be happy
to be paying only $2.00 per gallon.

Sorry, but you've got it all wrong!  Gas doesn't cost
any more in France than it does in Topeka.  TAXES
are what cost more "over there".  Clinton jacked
up the Federal taxes on gas, but of course, there
were already a lot of taxes imposed, both at the 
State as well as at the Federal level, prior to 1992.  

The fact that the European countries chose to 
finance their social programs by taxing their
citizens' fuel usage is not an automotive, or even 
an economic issue - it's just politics.  I am not saying
that one system is better or worse than the other -
I am just point out that blaming the Middle Eastern
producers for high gasoline prices is kind of naive.

Jay Mackro
St. Louis, MO

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