I constantly read/hear about Americans trubled/angry with their gasoline priceses (yes people do the same here in Sweden as well). I even hear about people depending on driving for a life now seeing their trucking/driving business going down because of higher prices on gasoline. The American price on gasoline is roughly aound 4 dollars per gallon. I decided to see how much that is compared to our prices in Sweden which is roughly 14 Swedish crownes (SEK) per Litre. I wanted to see if the price in America was:

1. High
2. Hurting so much that you deserved sympathy.

Alright, the facts:

• One gallon is 3.79 Litres.
• One US Dollar is around 6 Swedish Crownes.
• The average average American makes about the same amount of money per year as a Swede, if you look at the wages only at an average and not on figures of GNP. But we higher taxes. (But instead we have something for free and dont need to pay private insurances). But all in all, I guess that the americans have a bit more in left their wallet than what we do when all the "musts" are payed every day.

The fancy calculation:

That means that one gallon of gasoline in Sweden would cost a Swede around 53 of our Swedish crownes or roughly 8.83 dollars per gallon. 1.05 dollars per litre or 6.3 Swedish Crownes . Thats more than twice as much as it does in america.

The unscientific conclusion:

1. The prices in america are low by international standards.
2. Well, hurting and pain is relative. But lets talk more about sympathy when your gasoline costs 8.8 dollars per gallon.

The price of gasoline in America is very low compared to those in most of western europe (Sweden is actually not the highest). The last time we had your prices I was a kid watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the lost arc at the cinema. Of course its all relative and its the raise in percent that counts, not to mention the inflation of currency and such. But the price on gasoline has increased dramatically here as well so the comparison in percentage is quite possible to make.

American economy seems to be founded on cheap energy and fuel. In Sweden our economy is based more on everything BUT the fuel. If we had your prices on gasoline our economy would be booming like crazy probably. The simple fact that you measure gasoline by the gallons, and not something smaller like litres says a lot about your history. And when I look at how Americans towns and cities in general are planned (takes up large area - long driving distance between services compared to European cities of the same size in population) I see a quite obvious pattern. Gasoline was cheap like water in your country once and you planned many things accordingly.

Well… Its a new world, and those who control the supply and price on raw oil see little reason to lower their prices when most people apparently will pay the higher prices for the gasoline. The only solution is for all of the world to find new types of sources of fuel or dramatically change their life. I dont believe for one second that ethanol from plants is the key. Increasing the production of oil or perhaps subsidising the price by govermental means will do nothing in the end.