Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 18:23:47 -0700 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: Mark Newton <newton@internode.com.au> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG, "Koster, K.J." <K.J.Koster@kpn.com>, Wes Peters <wes@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Great American Gas Out Message-ID: <38C065A3.7492957B@softweyr.com> References: <59063B5B4D98D311BC0D0001FA7E452201313909@l04.research.kpn.com> <38BFEEA8.1A465CFC@softweyr.com> <20000304101212.A384@internode.com.au>
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Mark Newton wrote:
>
> On Fri, Mar 03, 2000 at 09:56:08AM -0700, Wes Peters wrote:
>
> > "Koster, K.J." wrote:
> >
> > > Oh, those Americans. :-)
> > > Let's see: $1 per gallon in the US. $1.2 per litre in the Netherlands,
> > > times 4.5 (or thereabouts) is $5.4 per gallon in the Netherlands.
> > > Everyone in the Netherlands drives cars; everyone thinks gas is expensive.
> > > This means that the gas prices in the US can go up 440% and people will
> > > still drive cars and buy gas (and complain about gas prices, of course).
> >
> > First, this off-topic for -hackers, so I've directed replies to -chat
> > if you want to continue.
>
> Sage advice :-)
>
> > Second, I know people that commute distances that would cross your
> > country. I suspect the average American uses a lot more gas than the
> > average Nederlander.
>
> Bah. In Western Australia there's a sheep station called "Little Texas"
> which just happens to have a land area larger than the state of Texas;
> I live in Adelaide, so I have to go 600 km East or 3000 km West or 3000 km
> North to find another population centre with more than 50,000 people;
> the nearest interstate Capital city is 980 km away. Our cities are also
> a hell of a lot more widely laid-out than yours: Adelaide, with a pop.
> of 1.1 million, has the same surface area as New York City.
> So let's accept that distances in the US are pissant little commuter hops,
> shall we? :-)
My Dad used to sell coffee to this van full of men working on the
Intermountain Power Plant in Delta, Utah. They all lived in or
around Jerome, Idaho, about 275 miles from Delta. The 6 of them
took turns driving so they wouldn't get too worn out, because they
drove there and back every day. I think I'd just get a room and
go home on weekends.
Pissant little commuter hop?
> > Third, our gas prices here are held down by all sorts of weird
> > government intervention, bizarre market shenanigans, and a public that
> > doesn't understand that the price of gasoline has risen only 4x in the
> > same period that the price of cars has risen 10x. That's certainly
> > NOT a "natural occurence".
>
> Our prices are held *up* by the fact that over 50% of them constitute
> State and Federal taxes.
$0.56 cents/gal here, and most of it wasted in beauracracy. I'm
sure yours isn't too different on that front.
> > Fourth, I'm paying $1.48/gal right now, and I want the price to go
> > DOWN, not UP.
>
> I'm paying A$0.83c/L right now, which is roughly A$3.73/gal, which is
> roughly US$2.76. That means the US price of petroleum can rise by almost
> 100% and people still still drive the kind of distances which usually
> constitute international travel.
Yup. I am, however, contemplating getting something easier on gas
(and tires) than my Toyota 4x4.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
wes@softweyr.com http://softweyr.com/
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