There’s nothing which says more about the insularity of Americans than their
reaction to gasoline prices. Any truly global citizen would take one look at
a price of $3.22
per gallon and wonder at how dirt-cheap it is. (Well, two looks, actually:
first she’d probably convert it to 85 cents per liter.)
CNN helpfully puts US prices into a global
context. Wikipedia helpfully puts US prices into a global
context. (The CNN page is out of date; thanks to commenter Matthew for the
better link.) In Japan gasoline costs $3.84 per gallon; in Ireland it’s $4.78;
in France it’s $5.54; in the UK it’s $5.79; and in Holland it’s $6.48. Belgium,
Finland, Germany, Norway, Turkey, and the UK all have gasoline prices near or
over $7 per gallon. The US has, by some margin, the cheapest
gasoline in the developed world.
Now it’s true that the cost of driving 100 miles is not commensurately lower
in the US, because Americans love their gas guzzlers. And it’s also true that
America’s wide-open spaces do mean that Americans are likely to drive many more
miles per year than, say, the Dutch. But even so, if you’re in favor of a carbon
tax, as a majority of economists seem to be, then you should by rights be very
happy about rising gasoline prices, which have essentially the same effect without
having to implement any legislation.