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Originally Posted by stevo
When I get a chance I'll do the analysis again without taxes incorperated into the prices. As it looks to me, the US pays more per gallon of gasoline than all the countries I listed above, except for the netherlands. We aren't catching up to the rest of the world, because we aren't taxing gasoline 200%. Our taxes haven't changed and neither have yours.
Now that I think about it again. The correct way to look at it would be to look at the non-tax price of gasoline, since if the taxes remain constant they shouldn't be incorperated into the percentage increase in the cost. I have a feeling if I look at the numbers again, less the taxes, they might be closer together.
My original point still stands though, supply and demand is not what is driving Crude oil prices. If it was, you would be saying the demand for crude oil has more than doubled in 2 years.  |
Yep, once you ignore taxes, you'll see this complaint doesn't work out. It takes less of a % increase in the rest of those countries to equal the same absolute increase as the US because of the fact that their prices were so much higher in the first place. Take, probably reasonable examples, $2.50/unit in the US versus $6/unit in western europe. If the market price of gasoline goes up $0.50/unit and that's the only contributing factor, that's a 20% price increase in the US compared to only 8.3% in europe.
but you're right, it's not straight supply and demand like that which is driving prices because that is not how the market works. It's not only direct consumers who are buying crude. The price is related to current supply and demand sure, but it's also related to FUTURE supply and demand as investors buy on speculation that the price will go even higher, and that future speculation is mainly what sets the price since production and consumption don't change much in that short of a term.