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Gasoline Going Up But Still Cheap

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May 22 2007 12:00am EDT

Gasoline: Going Up, But Still Cheap

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 (The CNN page is out of date; thanks to commenter Matthew for the better link.)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.

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