To: "homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Homestead] Gas at $6.40 per gallon is acceptable
Date: Sun, 07 May 2006 09:44:37 -0500
Apparently, the water the Germans are stewing in
has been increasing in temperature for so long
that they don't much feel the heat. Time heals
all hurts? Offered for perspective:
THE German mass-market newspaper Bild carried a
banner headline last week complaining about all
the new taxes being proposed by the government: a
higher sales tax, a health care tax and a surtax on rich people.
Nowhere did it mention fuel taxes, which account
for more than half of every euro spent at the gas
pump. On that very day, gasoline had hit the
equivalent of $6.40 a gallon. But even at today's
prices, few people here are calling for gasoline taxes to be cut.
The lack of debate about gasoline prices in
Europe is instructive at a time when American
politicians are scrambling to soothe their angry
constituents with ill-fated proposals like a $100 rebate for motorists.
It's not that Europeans like paying $6 a gallon
to fill up their Fiats. Nor do they relish paying
taxes; Bild warns that the new taxes being
proposed could strangle
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/germany/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>Germany's
economic rebound. But for now, people here seem
to agree that taxing gasoline is both necessary
as a way to raise money to pay down their huge
public debts and beneficial for the environment.
So while the latest spike in fuel prices has
provoked howls of anguish from many Americans,
Europeans have reacted like, well, Europeans
with a mixture of weary resignation, halfhearted
anger toward "price-gouging" oil companies and
bemusement at the furor across the Atlantic.