NUGGETS of WISDOM for LOOP TOURING

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Rainer asked:
"Really, Rick, is there (and has there been all the time) a subsidy on

(car) gasoline prices in the U.S. for all your respective lives?
Meaning that the vendor actually gets a guaranteed price on gas which
will be achieved by using taxpayer's money if the market doesn't
reflect that guarantee?

I'm asking because here in Germany (which is part of Europe, and hence
part of your counterexample), the tax portion on gas (including all
those crazy taxes the invented from time to time) is above 60%, which
may appear odd, destructive and all in all rather true to Stalinistic"
ideals which, in fact, it is."


Interesting, Rainer, I really don't know an in depth informed answer to 
that question.

I do know that while in Europe,  Petrol was between $3 and $4  per liter.

At $12 to $16 a gallon (all of this approximate because my head cold 
precludes me getting out 
my calculator)  that is now 6 to 8 TIMES as expensive as it is here 
(currently,  $2/Gallon)

That can't all be just the high taxes you guys pay, though surely that 
must be some of it.

I've always understood that the big Oil Companies have had big subsidies 
and also 
that they have ridiculous tax write offs compared to normal folk.

My father,  who did research it, always said that American gasoline was 
subsidized which was 
part of what makes European and UK gasoline so expensive.   Add the 60% 
tax and you guys 
really pay through the nose for it.

Any Americans know the exact skinny on this subject?   

I'm just talking from 
assumptions I"ve made all my life and the fact that gas is so cheap here.

For one thing,  lacking any kind of decent public transportation except in 
the largest of cities 
and a train system that very, very few people ride and given the huge 
distances between cities, especially 
out here in the West of the US,   we just wouldn't be able to get around 
if gasoline cost as much as it costs 
you.

I love your train and subway system!