Question id like to ask is in america do you pay road tax for your veichle or is it put innto the petrol??? If its in the petrol like some countries do then i feel this isnt a bad deal... Furthermore with our health system we pay into it out of our wages... People assume it is free however despite paying tax on our monthly wage we also have National insurance which is used to fund the NHS and each month i have to pay between £100 and 200 a month out of my wage which annoys me as i pay an additional £300-£400 in tax... I think they should lower the tax and merge the two as a 2 in 1 deal lol
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I live in New Hampshire USA and I have to drive about 75 miles (120 km) per day for my commute to and from work. I am currently paying about $3.85 per US Gallon ( 0.64 British Pounds per liter). My car gets about 30 miles per gallon and this now costing my over $200 per month for gasoline.
To Europeans this may sound cheap, but there is an untold story to what appears to be cheap petrol. If you add in the taxes we pay to maintain our military presence in the Middle East and the wars that go with it, we are really paying about $10 per gallon (about what Europeans are paying, or even a bit more).
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as soon as i saw the trade towers fall i went out an bought a 5th gen Honda civic-VX, paid premium costs for a 20year old car in immaculate condition. granted it is and old car but it uses standard technology to get 50+mpg.
in Colorado, most peeps on the road i pass, their tires are larger than the VX.
i am really impressed by this forum; gassavers.org
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[SIZE="2"][COLOR="Red"]Going to the petrol station is such a financially painful experience for me, thank goodness I do a lot of walking.
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When possible I try to walk as often as I can, the price of gas is ridiculous.
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SF2NH Wrote:I live in New Hampshire USA and I have to drive about 75 miles (120 km) per day for my commute to and from work. I am currently paying about $3.85 per US Gallon ( 0.64 British Pounds per liter). My car gets about 30 miles per gallon and this now costing my over $200 per month for gasoline.
To Europeans this may sound cheap, but there is an untold story to what appears to be cheap petrol. If you add in the taxes we pay to maintain our military presence in the Middle East and the wars that go with it, we are really paying about $10 per gallon (about what Europeans are paying, or even a bit more).
Hah, we don't even get most of our oil form the Middle East. We get the largest amount from Canada. We are paying to acquire and protect oil that goes to other countries.
http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/rese...-oil-from/
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Bowyn Aerrow Wrote:That is only on the surface, its not until we start comparing American life styles to European lifestyles.
Lets look at the physical geography of the USA to Europe:
http://goeurope.about.com/od/europeanmap...on-map.htm provides an overlay of the USA and Europe. The whole of Europe is 'tiny' compared to the whole of USA.
Um . . . that is not a full map of Europe. I mean, the same hold's true: Size and population density are important in such matters. But the two maps, the one of Europe and the One of the U.S. are not complete. Greece, for instance, is not on that map.
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Bowyn Aerrow Wrote:Comparing European prices to American prices may, on the surface, look like a jolly good bet. That is only on the surface, its not until we start comparing American life styles to European lifestyles.
Lets look at the physical geography of the USA to Europe:
http://goeurope.about.com/od/europeanmap...on-map.htm provides an overlay of the USA and Europe. The whole of Europe is 'tiny' compared to the whole of USA.
The typical Brit rarely drives that far on any given day, while here in California millions commute 100 miles to and from work daily. England, Wales Scotland would fit neatly inside of California. Further East of me here in the Central Valley, Stockton, Tracy and surrounding areas are bedroom communities, folk live there and drive the 80-120 miles to the Bay area to work. Every morning about 2 million people get up, and get in their car (yes by themselves) and drive to work.
The alternative is to drive to Dublin/Pleasanton and hop BART - if you work any where near its line. The other alternative is to take one of three daily trains to Oakland, then hop on a bus or Bart to get to other parts. this only works well if you work close to a BART station.
L.A. is another commuter paradise, as many of the outlying communities of L.A. are actually bedroom communities, and again a couple three million people jump in their car and drive 50 or so miles to work.
So while the typical UK person may be spending more per volume of petrol, they are most likely using far less than a typical American.
On top of this, a lot of goods in the USA goes cross country via big rig trucks (lorry). Compared to say the UK, our rail system is nearly nonexistent. Yes we have long rail routes and lots of them, but the density of rail compared to the UK is woeful. Here in California we have two (just two) passenger train routes, the majority of rail traffic is just cargo.
Where as most UK towns and villages and suburbs are tied in to major work areas with rail and mass transit, the USA is built on a network of roads and spread out in the Automobile Era.
Los Angeles up until 1940's had an extensive network of trollies and even passenger train lines from the surrounding areas into the city. In the 1940's, after WWII, all of those tracks were pulled up in favor of the freeway system. L.A. is now surviving on mostly private automobiles, with a mass transit system that comes from the third world (compared to most European nations).
Depending on how you look at the statistics, and what factors you play into commute time, most Americans spend nearly twice as much time traveling to and from work than most Brits.
Americans fill up over twice as often as UK folk.
And of course the taxes. While a UK citizen is paying more in fuel, they are paying far less in health insurance. There are various other minor social programs that are ran off the taxes generated in the UK that come directly out of the pocket of a US citizen.
A UK citizen gets more 'bang' from their buck. While some things are covered by the small Federal and State taxes levied against petrol, the reality is that most increases in price per volume is pure profit for the oil companies and they sheer the sheeple on a yearly basis.
Bowyn, forgive me, but I can't help but feel your view of the UK is a bit skewed. Yes, the US is larger, but many people I work with still endure long commutes in excess of 50 miles.
If you live in or close to a major city or larger town, then you may(may!) be ok, but in general the bus and train routes to and from many villages/towns in the UK are woeful, with road being the only viable option for travelling. If I wanted to use public transport to get to work(12 miles away) I'd have to walk a mile, then take two buses to get me to work, which would take 2.5 hours one way, to do 12 miles! We also lost major chunks of our rail network following WWII as road freight and personal car ownership became more common. All the local villages in my county used to be connected by rail links. Now none are.
As for getting more bang for our buck I dunno about that. We may have a large rail network but most of our goods are trucked just like yours, so fuel price has a major effect. Our fuel is roughly $9 a gallon, I really do not see how that is better bang for our buck, we pay far more per mile travelled than you guys at $4 a gallon, even with your on average less efficient engines(diesel passenger cars are common here, since 2008 more than 50% of new car sales have been diesel cars, getting on average in excess of 38 US MPG/45 Imperial MPG)
I guess what I'm really trying to say here is that when it comes to fuel prices, we get screwed. Before tax we have the cheapest fuel in europe. Something like 75% of the pump price is taxation with the filling station only receiving a couple of pence per litre sold as profit.
Overall as I understand it the US has a much cheaper cost of living, your housing is cheaper, your goods are cheaper, your cars are cheaper, your food is cheaper and your fuel is cheaper. The only area where i believe you may pay more is for health insurance, but I don't know what your average healthcare payments are as a percentage of your gross income.
On average, how much of a US person's gross income is paid out in health insurance? Here we pay 11% of our gross in National Insurance to fund the NHS.
As a gear head with a thirsty car, the price of fuel is a real bug bear of mine. When I started driving in 2002 fuel was less than half what it costs now, it sucks 
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blokeinsussex Wrote:Something like 75% of the pump price is taxation with the filling station only receiving a couple of pence per litre sold as profit.
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Well, it sounds like taxation is the problem. That is an issue you can do something about at the ballot box if you like. Americans generally have very low taxes, but that is due to a historic aversion to it. That aversion, I believe, has had both positive and negative effects.
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As much as I wish it were so I'm afraid there is no political party in the UK who will stand up and say they will slash fuel duty for fear of the green lobby criticising them, plus its now too much money for them to lose.
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