Gas Prices
May. 4th, 2008 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkcrystI spoke to my dad earlier, and he brought up an terrifying point for all those people in the USA who are worried about $4 gasoline....
Currently the price in the UK is 1.11GBP per litre. That works out as $8.30 a US gallon...
...the UK isn't really that much more expensive than the rest of the world. Maybe 1.50 of that is the extra tax that they use to, well, have a road system that doesn't suck1
So yeah, when people say it's going to get worse before it gets better? It's more of a - it was artificially good before (subsidized), now the US is actually catching up.
owch.
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1 - ok, so I'm in California which has roads designed as if by tripping hippies and built as if by a stoned surfer name Jeb, but... still...
Currently the price in the UK is 1.11GBP per litre. That works out as $8.30 a US gallon...
...the UK isn't really that much more expensive than the rest of the world. Maybe 1.50 of that is the extra tax that they use to, well, have a road system that doesn't suck1
So yeah, when people say it's going to get worse before it gets better? It's more of a - it was artificially good before (subsidized), now the US is actually catching up.
owch.
______________
1 - ok, so I'm in California which has roads designed as if by tripping hippies and built as if by a stoned surfer name Jeb, but... still...
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Re: Dave in London.
Date: 2008-05-10 11:01 pm (UTC)Of course then you add VAT... which gets it to 65.24p but counting VAT is dumb for comparison purposes - it's not the same kind of tax at all. That is what I meant about dodgy numbers.
Complaining about VAT on petrol as part of the taxes on fuel is just plain wrong. VAT is a separate argument, so should be separated out from fuel tax, as it's not a fuel tax - its a sales tax.
Plus as I said - the tax from fuel costs means the roads don't suck and are built on time. The new section of the bay bridge is... something like 8 freaking years overdue..? That is nuts. It's cost more than the freaking Dome did. Plus the main freeways have potholes in that could sink a Mini, let alone the back roads - and this is in a major metropolitan area!
So sure - the UK gets taxed more than the US - but look at what it gets for it: better roads, sane road systems, things built on time, and good public transport (even Brentwood public transport is compatible to Oaklands).