Snowed in, Vienna looks just like its version in "Amadeus"... <3

[max_und_moritz]

Gallon of gas costs 3.21 $ in the USA (Source: CNN. Worksafe.)

So... what´s their problem, exactly? Because:

1 gallon [US, liquid] = 3.8 liter
3.8 x 1.27 Euro/liter = 4.826 Euro/gallon
4.826 Euro/gallon = 7.04607 USD/gallon here

Comments

[sienamystic]

It's truly aggravating that great swathes of American infrastructure was built on the idea that A) People have cars and B) gas is cheap so people will use their cars. I currently live on the outskirts of Washington DC. If I want to get from my suburb into the city, it's relatively easy - there will probably be a bus or I can use the Metro train. However, if I want to get to my mom's house, a scant ten miles away, there would be great difficulty in finding a bus that took that route without taking me into the city, changing to another bus line, and then heading back out of the city. It would probably take around three hours to do so. When I was in Italy, I adored the ease of the train/bus system, and wish dearly we had something similar networking the United States

[max_und_moritz]

Hmm, slugging sounds very ingenious (if your pick-up guy isn´t a delinquent, heh) There was that situation in Austria too post-war, when the public transport system had collapsed and the only means of transport was a bicycle or walking... the people themselves organised rather regular schedules of rickety mule carts and bikes or tractors (with black-market fuel) each connecting every little village with all the other villages in a 30 km radius plus the nearest town, so there was a kind of spiderweb puzzle, with handwritten schedules copied and nailed to post offices and poles, and tweaked it as needed til they figured out what exactly where the actual basic necessities of the population, and then the authorities took over all the budding unofficial "system" and developed it immensely...

[sienamystic]

Slugging is a wonderful system - I'm actually a second-generation slugger, as that's how my dad got into work. It grew up organically, and developed its own rules, and sluggers are as a rule very keen on keeping the government/any authorities out of it, as it's believed that they would destroy it while trying to better it.

I love it, but I know many people are leery about getting into the car with strangers (although after a few weeks, you end up recognizing most of the people driving and riding) even though it's quite safe - the system has been going since the late seventies, and there haven't been any incidents.

[max_und_moritz]

Hehe, American civil initiatives as usual light-years ahead of State measures - and way more advanced than EU measures too *g*

[blanhe2]

And 1.27 per liter is still damn cheap. I don't even pay that for diesel at the moment.... diesel in Germany is about 1.30 per liter and 95 RON is 1.42 per liter.

[max_und_moritz]

That´s a lot... so I´m guessing your environmental fuel taxes are even higher in Germany (but then there´s a lot more lorry traffic there, so the highways need more maintenance investments).

I´m paying about 1.19 in the Simmeringer Haide drive-through station - that´s for Biodiesel ;)

[blanhe2]

Four weeks ago, before I went to Mexico, I was only paying 1.14 or so for diesel.... it is the recent crude oil price rise I think that did this. The diesel price is really going up and down a bit this week alone. I saw it at 1.36, 1.30 and 1.32 this week alone.

[max_und_moritz]

o.O and I thought we had unstable prices here...! I´m not going to roll my eyes anymore, promised :p

[rantipole6]

Much as I hate paying more for gas in the US, I secretly get kind of happy when they raise the prices because I keep hoping that'll spur the city gov't to add a bunch more bus routes so I can ditch the car. As it is, there is no bus that goes to the tutoring center and the nearest stop is almost 4 miles away.

Higher gas prices tend to suck for Americans just because the cost of EVERYTHING has been going up for the last decade, but wages aren't following. Every year we work harder and harder and have less to show for it. The trouble with us is that unlike France (I don't think we have the right to call them "pussies" since they actually show a little backbone against unjust employers), we don't have a strong labor/union solidarity sentiment, so rather than getting incensed at the companies that keep us in poverty, we bitch about rising gas prices and expensive coffee. Sad, isn't it?

[max_und_moritz]

If it´s any comfort, Cait, wages aren´t following inflation even remotely here either (I´m fortunate to work as freelance for an international organisation and pay no income tax (though that means no unemployment money or holiday or pension fund or any insurance), but what with the falling USD, I earn de facto about 38% less than three years ago, and inflation doesn´t help either

[grace_poppy]

Well, you know how it is - if a country gets used to things being a certain way, they're upset when prices go up. I remember a British student protesting during the Queen's procession through Edinburgh because he was upset about how much university would now cost, but I just shook my head, since his costs would be minuscule compared to mine in the USA

[max_und_moritz]

True, people here tend to work within a radius of 20 miles at most, because most infrastructure allows for it and the biggest cities aren´t such "centralised" hotspots of industrial, trade and working hotspots, and I guess tha´s lucky for us.

Yep, really! Average real wage in the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, etc etc before taxes = 420 USD. If you´re lucky. Most civil servants (also teachers, nurses, teachers etc in the public system) earn less, in fact :)