Originally posted by Jackal1
Sure you don`t beetle. Watching that grass grow is all you need.
I can turn more miles in my home state than you do in your entire country. I can also see about anything in this state that you have seen in your entire travels. That eats ya up don`t it? 
That`s just ONE state.
What, TX?
I've been there twice - in 1978 and in 2001.
Saw a little bit of everything, but didn`t even scratch the surface country wise. You would have to set up a test track and run laps to do that and then you would not see anyything worth the effort.
LOL - on the one hand, you brag about doing 4000 miles in your home state, and on the other you claim that "we have everything we need right here" in reference to your back yard. Which is it??!
I LOVE the way you turn things upside down, eg. defining someone who is well travelled as being bored with their own environs, and then crowing about how
little you travel because "we have everything we need right here". So why the need to travel 4000 miles to seek fulfillment, huh? Guess you were wearing a different hat that day.
I wonder how it was in the Columbus household in 1492-
Hey, Christopher, why do you have to go discovering America? Sit down and eat your spaghetti - we have everything we need right here! Westy asked
Was wondering. Are gasoline prices going up in Europe?
Yes, but perhaps more slowly than in the USA. Europe has always recognised that oil is a precious, finite resource. (Other countries are just waking up to this) For this reason, European countries have long had relatively high taxation on oil, and 10mpg gas guzzlers have never gained a foothold here. MOST EU countries (the UK is not one of them) encourage diesel use by having lower duty on diesel, which is why 60% of all cars are diesel powered in some countries. And those cars can achieve 50 miles on a US gallon. The annual taxation on cars in Europe favours cars which consume the least fuel. The end result of all these factors is that demand for fuel is lower that it otherwise would be, and therefore the price is not being forced up as much.
The other thing to consider is that because most of the price is tax, when the oil price goes up, it has less of an impact on the pump price - unless of course the tax is linked to the base cost of oil. Here, there's a combination of flat rate and variable tax. Fuel duty is about 48p/litre - that's about 87 cents. But then there's VAT (like sales tax) at 17½% on top of the total.
