Who wishes that these were the gasoline prices again?

[humanearth]

Early 1970s

[Losalt]

It's so weird to hear about Americans complaining about fuel prices.
I live in a country where it's hovering just below 10 dollars pr gallon, and in Hong Kong it's above that.
So American prices (even in California) isn't really that high in total.
As for prices in relation to wages, there's countries where fuel prices makes up a significant part of peoples wages, way, way more then in the US.
And Americans have one of the lowest fuel prices in the western world.
Yet they complain about said prices.
US fuel taxes are also static, so not rising with rising fuel prices, while European ones usually are a percentage of the total price at the pump...

[genericname85]

yeah the reason isn't gas prices tho. just european inflation seems to be even more extreme than US inflation.

[Losalt]

@genericname85
And we have *real* gas taxes.
You guys complain about horrible roads yet you have kept the gas taxes funding them stagnant for decades...

[Losalt]

Californian prices are basically what Europeans pay to import our fuel before taxes.

[Losalt]

The rest of the US is a separate energy market since it's easier to transport fuel within the country then into it everywhere else then in California.

[genericname85]

yeah but the gas taxes here were so extreme even before this inflation. i personally think gas tax here is quite unreasonable. it's more than the gas itself costs.

[Losalt]

@genericname85
That's downright wrong.
The majority of US gas prices, even in places like California is just transportation, refining and storage.
The majority of gas prices in many European countries are *still* taxes even with the inflation.
You pay a fixed sum in taxes pr gallon, and it's just a few cent, we pay a percentage of the total price, and that's just the gas price, then you have other taxes added on top, CO2 taxes, value added taxes, etc.
Essentially about half the price is taxes, rather than just a few cent.
Trust me, you are taxing your gasoline way, way, way too low.
There's no other developed nation with that low gas tax.
You guys have gas prices normally just found in the developing world.

[genericname85]

that's what i said. taxes were the majority of the price in Europe even before this inflation. depending on which country of the eu you live in, the percentage of tax in the overall price is even bigger than the gas itself.

[Losalt]

By the way, when I say that more then half the price is taxes, that equates to over 100% tax on gas, when you add up all the separate taxes.

In my country, you'll pay about the equivalent of 3 000-4 000 USD for a drivers license for regular cars.
The cost of buying a new car, including the purchase price, (if it's not electric) is about 2x the US cost for a new car.
And like you can see, with gas prices approaching 10 dollars pr gallon our fuel prices are also more than double yours.
And of course, you have to be a minimum of 18 years old to drive, if you speed more then 20 km/h above the speed limit you lose your license and have to try again, *and* have to either pay thousands in fine or go to jail for a short while, and drinking, even a little bit of wine the day before is likely to be enough to be a crime here, as our legal tolerance is so low that there's essentially a zero tolerance.

It makes for more responsible drivers.
Far fewer traffic accidents, less congestion, less pollution (better air), etc, etc.

[Losalt]

Where is "here"?
Where do you live?

[genericname85]

germany. here, only 30% is the raw oil price. 10% transport. 5% this new co2 tax that was introduced enf of last year. then there's 38% eco-tax (which makes no sense cause the 5% for co2 is an eco tax too). and then 17% is value addet tax. so that's 60% tax on gas prices in germany. 40% of the price is actually paying the gas.

[Losalt]

@genericname
My understanding is that the CO2 tax is the tax on CO2 produced in the production and transportation if the gas, while the eco tax is tax on the CO2 produced in the consumption of the gas.

[genericname85]

yeah well, the government will find reasons to scam the people out of even more money. because A: it's not like people have a realistic alternative yet. an B cause they're triyng to force electric mobility, which is nowhere near comercially ready yet. plus most people can't just afford to buy a brand new electric car. so that's not even an option for the average person.

i undertand this new EU co2 thing is a cost that the national government cannot control. but the eco tax is just there to discourage driving and to wash money into the governments pockets.

[Losalt]

You still pay less in both taxes and other expenses then us, in my country.

[genericname85]

just cause your tax usury is worse doesn't mean ours is acceptable xD

[Losalt]

Look at the sale of electric cars in Norway the last few years.
Electric cars outsells all other cars, including hybrids by a huge margin now.

[Losalt]

60% is acceptable in my view, I'd personally prefer them to be 100%

[genericname85]

you mean "new car" sales right? not overall car sales. i know norway is more wealthy than germany. but i don't believe that the majority of your population can afford electric cars. only those that can afford to get a new one anyway. there's no big marked for used electric vehicles yet.

[genericname85]

the vast majority of people who buy cars, don't buy new cars in germany.

[genericname85]

you're not very good in maths xD if the gas price was 100% tax, nobody could sell it, cause there wouldn't be a profit margin for the sellers transporters and producers xD

[Losalt]

If you include plug in hybrids electrified cars make up about 1/5th of all cars in Norway.

[Losalt]

100% tax means you essentially pay 2x the value that the gas was bought for from the refinery.
You pay 200% normal price.
And there *would* be a profit margin on that.

[Losalt]

Never mind, I get what you mean, brain fart thing, but yeah, I'd prefer more than 60% of the total price being taxes, or a lot more then 100% total tax pressure.

[Losalt]

Math after midnight...

[Losalt]

But yeah, in my mind a fair tax would be 300%, or 75% of the price being taxes.

[Losalt]

And you're right about the math thing.
When I'm tired I just use approximations when dealing with this in my head, instead of actual math.
60% is close to 50% in my mind, and 50% would entail 100% tax.
Something that's really low in my mind.
I'll have to admit that I underestimated how much percentage of the total price would scale in terms of percentage of price in added tax.

[Likes2drive]

Yeah I remember those prices , looks like an early 70s Duster too, will never live those days again

[humanearth]

It is a Duster

[Brainsbeforebeauty]

I sure do!! $50 doesn't even fill the tank completely and I drive pretty far for my job🙄

[humanearth]

I spend about 200 a week on fuel, I'll trade you

[dustybiker]

Aw. Back in the day when they were mostly honest.

[dustybiker]

Thanks for the mhg.

[AviatorTom]

Not really. That was a former time that we can never relive. I wouldn't want to see gasoline prices that low... it would encourage too many crazy drivers on the road. A reasonable price for gasoline, somewhat less than the current high prices, would be good, IMHO.

[Fireguy17]

When I started working at a service station they were having a gas war, 24.9
It was usually 29.9 to 32.9
I could not put $3.00 with of gas in my car, small tank, great gas mileage too.
I could put maybe.50 in my motorcycle.

[BLP11520]

Yes, most cars were V8's I believe that is a Nova, I had a 74 Nova. People made rude comments yesterday when I asked about gas prices and Trump. This inflation is all on Biden. He shut down the pipeline his first day, or whoever is running him. People that can't respond with out using F words and vulgar sexual references are showing either their immaturity or lack of education.

[Andres77]

It was like this in Venezuela in 1999 just before Chavez destroyed the nation with his socialist BS.

[humanearth]

Bingo

[Chiarac2003]

But then there b no electric car?… that bad. Electric car.. good. 😂😂😂

[Guido]

I remember those prices and would love to see them again. I just filled up my pick up and it took over $260 to fill and it wasn't completely empty.

[humanearth]

380 to fill my motorhome

[SignedAutographs]

Or ya know, we could just completely get away from gas all together. Like biden promised. We are damaging the earth, and she's not happy

[humanearth]

Yeah right. The prices are only high because of greed

[Pudsmucker]

I agree that we should have gas with prices like it was in the 70s.

[Fuentes]

If racism did not exist back then i'd be more then happy to grow up in that era.

[genericname85]

well according to some people, nothing is better today xD that's cause they lower the bar for "racism" all the time just so they can claim there's still a problem with racism :D

[Fuentes]

@genericname85 i can believe that in a few other states but in California i have not experienced that ish at all snce the last 8 years i have been here. And i was also born here but did not grow up here but yeah some people do hold themselves back on a victim mindstate when they have no idea how much freedom they have on todays era then what we had way back then lol

[Waldoe]

I don't even need to read it all... everyone wants lower prices

[jimmy2]

Back in her day she waited 7 hours but price was.99 cents a gallon

[exitseven]

Is that a 73 Nova Hatchback?

[humanearth]

Plymouth Duster or a Dodge Demon

[exitseven]

I have to disagree.

[douride2]

I would love those prices.