Clarification/Follow-up by paraclete on 05/21/08 5:58 am:
Fred, that may have been true once, information I have suggests the US pay 45.9c a gallon tax on oil which is a huge percentage of your price. We pay a GST of 10%, a road tax of 3c a litre, and excise of 30c a litre, whilst this is much more than you, as a percentage it's about the same. No, the real question is what are the oil companies doing with the difference between $30 a barrel and the $115 they enjoy today. Much of this goes to governments in tax and in particular the US government to shore up their bankrupt economy. High oil prices are good business for both Bush and the US government, Fred, and we need to get their snout out of the oil trough. Without inflated oil prices they couldn't afford to make war. It suits the US to keep Alaska oil as a strategic reserve and it suits the oil companies to keep the price high.

The world is paying a very high price for the "Iraqi Freedom" US rhetoric and the US have only just begun to realise that. Both you and I were around in the 70's so we have both seen where this will lead economically.

Prices are now at least ten times higher than they were then. As a result of the oil price hike in the 70's my country underwent a complete industrial restructuring, so, Fred, guess whose next. No pain, no gain.

Clarification/Follow-up by arcura on 05/21/08 6:32 am:
Thanks for that information.
Fred

Clarification/Follow-up by paraclete on 05/23/08 4:18 am:
Hey Fred here are some more interesting facts, I did the maths today and you know when you take all factors into account and remove the taxes, allow for currency differences and so on, we are paying right now about the same as you for petrol, but the price rise in your market appears to be much greater than in ours. What I learned is that it isn't possible to make comparisons with any accuracy

Clarification/Follow-up by arcura on 05/23/08 5:57 pm:
Regarding price comparisons.......
That seems to happen often.