Squire Dana Linscott, At the risk of offending you, might I say, relative to your premise, and most predominantly your last sentence.....
Poppycock!!! Pure, unadulterated Poppycock!!!! There is an enormous difference between inefficiency, wanton waste and gluttony. Americans deserve justly to be "bashed," right up side their jolly old head until "we" stop talking out both sides of our mouths. Where to begin....Let's see.... For starters, take note that the cost of Persian Gulf defense to the US citizen is not reflected at the American pump. Rather, it's reflected in the collection of hidden and other taxes. A large part of European fuel taxes go directly towards their military funding and oil defense. A large degree of funding for environmental efforts is also secured at the pumps in Europe, as Europeans generally understand that the "free market" does not repair or ameliorate the true costs to the environment resulting from human endeavor. This understanding has been most notably preserved in the concept and application of the "commons," although the ancient practice has taken a good beating at times. Unfortunately, the only thing a US citizen knows about a "commons," by and large, is either a 10 penny nail or the one in Boston. Even then, most of us aren't aware as to why it was originally called that. We have little to no collective clue as to how areas in common must be maintained and nurtured. Rather, we have striven for exactly the opposite for 300 years - individual rights over collective rights, personal property rights over community rights - as if smog, lead, dioxin, mercury, vinyl chloride and all our other poisonous slurries will voluntarily stop at a property's edge - both above and below ground - in deference to the neighboring property's residents. God help them if they are renters or of lesser economic means. As for the balance of taxes collected at European pumps, no more excursionary tours will be taken, as sure enough, some Jack in the Box will start raging against the "horrors of socialism." Compared to numerous horrors of free market capitalism when applied inappropriately - which is more frequent than you blink - socialism is manicured daydream. At least Europe is relatively up front about their taxes. As a result, consumers are able to evaluate their consumption habits and their true costs every day of the week, whereas Americans don't even flinch when they fill up. (Either that or we whine like whipped pups when the price escalates 3/10ths of a pence!) The end result of true costs not being reflected at the pump is that consumers are lulled into believing that there are no costs beyond what our "wonderful free market" charges us - at least not until our government tells us so. Again.........Balderdash!!!!!!............Unadulterated, pure, methane rich cattle crap!!!!!!! It took a couple of millennia for Europe to start getting it down. One would have thought that collectively we Americans would have taken greater advantage of previous knowledge and experiences, rather than disregarding them. But then, we all kind of stepped into the mechanized/industrial age at the same moment. To set the record straight, rather than adopting the slogan from J. Bush's state - "This is Florida. The rules are different here." - we should be acknowledging that "This is America. The social, environmental and economic rules are no different here than anywhere else." With no tongue in cheek...... Todd Appal Energy [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dana Linscott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 9:38 AM Subject: [biofuel] Re: Cheek to Complain / Bashing > Let's see..you are paying the equivalent of $6 per > gallon for petrol and Americans are the ones that are > "programmed"? I don't think that's a valid > answer...its' just ameribashing. > > Except for the tax on energy we pay free market > prices. As it is nearly one third of our cost per > gallon is taxes. This establishes the actual free > market cost of petrol at around $1 per gallon. It has > never been cheaper adjusted for inflation. But we have > guys with the "cheek to complain" to thank for our > relatively low cost of energy in the US. I assume that > in Europe the tax you pay per gallon is roughly five > times the actual free market value of the petrol. And > you PAY IT! > > In the US we would undergo a complete change of > leadership...probably the vast majority of incumbents > would be "voted out of power" as well if they tried to > put such a regressive tax on us. It is not a user > fee...no matter what spin they try to put on it...it > is a tax which falls heavily on the poor and middle > class. > > We were lucky all our forefathers needed to do was > toss some tea in the sea to start the debate > (revolution) regarding taxation without > representation. Too late for you guys...can't stop > using petrol. Another way to look at it is that the > massive tax on petrol is a huge subsidy program based > on the backs of the poor and working class. I am sure > if you look carefully at where the money goes it goes > to a lot of places that cannot be remotely linked to > transportation infrastructure. > > We are a huge country with vast distances over which > people and things must be transported. We live in an > energy dominated world economy. I do not disagree that > we might be more efficient...but that is an issue that > will always be there no matter how efficient we get. > There is always room for improvement. I am not > defending inefficiency or the politics of energy. I > just don't think most Europeans understand the rules > we must live with in such a large and spread out > nation. > > Dana Linscott > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail > http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
