Aerothorn on 25/5/2007 at 19:30
So oddly enough, my main use for my friend's Wii is the News Channel - for some reason, reading the news while sitting in a beanbag is much more fun.
Anyway, AP had an article about the rising gas costs in the USA, and a poll about how people are coping.
It said for the first time, the average American thought that a fair price for gas was just over $2 (as opposed to less than $2 in the last poll). Which is still crazy-cheap.
My topic question is: why do Americans feel they are entitled to cheap gas? Everyone bitches and moans when our gas hits $3, yet it seems in Europe gas is frequently twice that (due to heavy taxation for obvious reasons) and yet there is less complaining. What's the deal?
fett on 25/5/2007 at 20:19
I'm not an economics major, but yeah it pisses me off. If the cost rose proportionately with other everyday items such as groceries, utility bills, etc. I'd write it off to cost of living. When it jumps $1 in 3 months time (meaning a previously $28 tank of gas suddenly costs $42), it's a shock to people living on a tight budget. I have no idea all the factors that contribute to the sudden increase, but it's hard not to feel like someone somewhere is either getting filthy rich from it, or really fucked something up big time. Either way, I think part of the indignation also comes from the insanely high income tax we pay (as if that's even really related??) - which makes us feel entitled to protection from high/fast increases in things that affect our daily living.
There's no basis for any of this in economic fact or theory probably. I'm just a dumb guy with a Chevy Tracker that I have to sell children into slavery to fill up anymore.
ignatios on 25/5/2007 at 20:23
Quote Posted by Aerothorn
My topic question is: why do Americans feel they are entitled to cheap gas? Everyone bitches and moans when our gas hits $3, yet it seems in Europe gas is frequently twice that (due to heavy taxation for obvious reasons) and yet there is less complaining. What's the deal?
Because they've had it for the last 50 years or so and their entire way of life depends on it. It doesn't have to, but for now it does.
SD on 25/5/2007 at 20:24
Let's just clarify from the start; when you say gas, you're actually talking about a liquid, right? :)
So far as the issue is concerned, I think it's just the way you've been conditioned to think over there. In Europe, petrol taxes are begrudgingly accepted because people see the need for the environmental cost of emissions to be accounted for in some way, and (historically) because cars are seen as a luxury item, rather than an essential.
Gestalt on 25/5/2007 at 20:32
Geography has something to do with it. Most cities in North America are built on the assumption that everyone can drive, and many people have to travel a long way to get to and from work. Public transport is generally pretty terrible in the States, from what I've heard.
I live in Saskatchewan, a large flat province in the middle of Canada. In more crowded places people build upwards when they need more housing space. Here developers mostly build outwards, expanding the borders of the city rather than making more efficient use of the space it already takes up. If we didn't have a reasonably decent bus system in place, everyone would need a car.
demagogue on 25/5/2007 at 21:00
Yeah, I think it's influenced by the fact that driving is such a necessity in so many parts of the US given the rise of suburban sprawl and long commutes to work. So e.g., people take the price of gas into account when deciding where to live and work, and cities when thinking about public transportation (which is awful, not least because of the sprawl) ... so they all start treating it like a kind of entitlement that they relied on in setting up the system as it came to be.
Psychologically speaking, I think probably the biggest reason is the related set of (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases) cognitive biases: entitlement bias, endowment bias/loss aversion (people feel a lot more awful (disutility) about losing something than good (utility) about gaining the same thing, and will behave very differently towards the two situations. That just means it looks weird when they freak out about the price of gas going up but don't seem as ecstatic when it goes down), status quo bias, availability bias (they notice the change because it's happening right in front of them, as if they might control it, and feel angry that someone isn't), oh definately Déformation professionnelle/national (tendency to look at things according to the conventions of one's own background, forgetting any broader point of view). Actually, go down the list and more than a few of the biases will support peoples' reactions.
Everybody has these biases at some level, but the US just has a different status quo, which is why I think (most of) the rest of the world doesn't really get what Americans are so worked up about. I think people that have lived abroad or just keep in touch with what's going on around the world understand that it's not as bad as it seems.
Ko0K on 25/5/2007 at 21:01
Europeans are paying more because most of it is tax that applies towards alternative fuel technology, clean air initiative, and other environment-related expenditures. We are paying more because oil companies are making record profits. Of course we should bitch and moan, since the extreme minorities (in this case the oil companies and the public officials, including Bush and his cronies) are getting rich off of the rest of the nation. I can dig up some numbers, but to me the most relevant example is the fact that my neighbor, who had a sizeable investment in the oil industries, retired earlier this year because she made more money than she imagined possible. This country is run by greed.
jay pettitt on 25/5/2007 at 21:05
If I was king I'd kill off road tax, road pricing schemes, tolls and what not; then stick the whole lot as a bit extra on petrol tax.
Carini on 25/5/2007 at 21:05
Quote Posted by ignatios
Because they've had it for the last 50 years or so and their entire way of life depends on it. It doesn't have to, but for now it does.
This. Also if you adjust for the cost of living and inflation gas now is still cheaper than it was during early 80's embargo.
hopper on 25/5/2007 at 21:15
Quote Posted by Ko0K
Europeans are paying more because most of it is tax
This is the correct part.
