On May 31, 2004, at 18:37, W & N Lafferty (Noelene) wrote:
Our petrol here in the "country" is current $AU1.09 per litre, which equates to about $US3.20 per gallon (using Jean's ratio of 3.75 litres per gallon).
It's really too bad that we have so few members from the non-English-speaking countries contribute to this fascinating discussion... I remember being in Italy, in the summer of '78, where the price of gasoline was $2.80 per gallon (yes, 3.75 litres per gallon is about right). At the time, we (here in the US) were complaining most bitterly about ours: $0.79... Of course, even then, we had nowhere near as good a public transport as was (and still is, as far as I'm concerned <g>) available in Europe, so we were more dependent on our *individual* transport... As someone (Patricia?) had said: it's the rural areas that get hit the most by gas price hikes; we don't have enough population density to merit public transportation in any frm (never mind get the chance to bitch about how it's deteriorated from the time "the oldest people remember"... <g>)
I gave up my old gas guzzler for an economy fuel model 6 years ago.
Yes, but... Here, you buy something that doesn't play merry hell with gas consumption, you're buying a *foreign* car... You're not *just* unpatriotic (by saving money on the basic price as well as maintenance); you're contributing to the downward spiral of the economy (car factories closed, people "let go", with their pension plans down the corporate plumbing, etc)... You're *vermin*... and your car is likely to be "keyed" -- the paintwork gouged by the honest-to-God Chevrolet and Ford keys... by the true patriots... :) DH has had his car re-sprayed twice; I don't bother (I don't bother to wash the car, either; it moves *without* washing, doesn't it?)
I don't, especially, like Kerry as "the opponent" but, by golly, his idea that we ought to get ourselves independent on the energy front, and do it, at least partly, by conservation (like: making fuel-efficient cars *here*) is, definitely, *sound* (to my 2 remaining brain-cells)... As with the taxes, I wouldn't mind paying the price, if I knew, for certain-sure, that "greater good" would follow...
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) Healthy US through The No-CARB Diet: no C-heney, no A-shcroft, no R-umsfeld, no B-ush.
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