$7 Gas on the Horizon?

Blast, you have hit the nail right on the head, if the Goverment wont sort it out then we the people will have to use are own devices. And just like that photo I have been doing just that planning for the worst but hoping for the best.

Getting around isn't a major concern, starvation on the other hand... We barely get by. Each month it seems like the effective cost of groceries goes up 20 cents per item or more. I have been sick ever since I left the military. A year ago I became unable to work. We are struggling to put healthy food on the table now, another fuel boom would break us.

Gas will be more than $7 a gallon if the U.S. imitates the socialist governments of Europe.

Combine the taxes on the oil companies, the tax on gasoline, the prevention of new refineries, the rising economies of China and India, looming conflict with Iran, the global warming religion, the people in power that think extracting oil from the ground won't do anything, etc......I think $7 a gallon is a gross underestimation.

So what? They want to milk us for every penny we have before admitting that we need an alternate energy source? Gimme a break.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a tree-hugging socialist or anything; but I am a Brit, and I did also live in the states for a while, and everytime I read Amercians bitching about petrol/gas prices it really makes my blood boil.

Just to dispel a few myths here - Europeans don't get paid vastly more than Americans in real terms, and on average our tax burden as a whole is much higher. Plus, I often here Americans say 'We have to drive further' - maybe some do out in the sticks, but most suburban/urban dwellers don't and you should see the traffic in the UK! I lived in Arizona and believe me, my car would get a whole lot better gas mileage cruising around on those flat, straight and uncrowded roads I knew in Tucson, than it does over here on our windy, hilly, clogged roads.

Basically it boils down to a technology gap. For many years the American market has been buying incredibly inefficient vehicles - and I'm not just talking about big pick up trucks and SUVs. Even the Japanese cars like Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans that are sold in the US tend to have much larger and thirstier engines than the same models sold in Europe. For example, when I lived in the States we had a Nissan, with a 2.4L engine - there is was classed as an 'economical sub-compact'!! We imported it back to the UK when we came back and good grief! We promptly got rid of it! A 2.0L engine here is classed as very big. To put this in persepective the average family car in the UK has an engine of around 1.3L - 1.6L!!!! The same is true in Europe as a whole. The car I currently drive is a Fiat 500 1.3L Diesel. It is a small car, even by UK standards, but it gets 60-80 MPG depending on how you drive it.

This is like everything else - for so long Americans have had so much of everything, and been used to large portions, cheap gas etc etc, - and now, when even Europeans are finding things extra-expensive of course Americans are going to notice the difference even more!

My message for Americans: welcome to the real world!