On the subject of oil, I still don't understand why everyone else in the world (except the oil-producing countries) has to pay outrageous prices for gas and we here in the U.S. do NOT?

Are there shipping issues that we don't experience? Is our government subsidizing it? Is it because we get some of our oil from domestic drilling? What is it? Or is it just because we are SOOO liked by the oil-supplying countries that they want to give us a huge price break? I just don't get it.

Good question!

I thought the price of a barrel of oil was set on the commodity markets.

Just speculating here, but maybe the price for a barrel of oil is only part of the equation.  Other factors such as the processing efficiency of domestic refineries, efficiency of our country's gasoline distribution system, degree of competition of local stations, as well as levels of local, state, and federal taxes probably contributes to the overall price difference.  

Tell ya what I am glad I live in the US go to this link and scroll about halfway down you'll see prices for the whole world and believe me we got it easy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_usage_and_pricing

Thanks for doing some homework for me.

The explanation for the disparity betwen U.S. and European countures is seen here:

Gasoline usage and pricing in Europe

Most European countries have high fuel taxes. The prices have traditionally been three to four times the price in the United States, with prices during 2000-2005 of €1/litre (about US$1.54/l or $5.82/gal) while the US had prices around $1.50/gal or $0.40/l. In 2007-2008, the market price before taxes has risen, raising the price of gasoline everywhere.

In a June 2008 OP-ED article responding to US Congressional hearings on the practice of oil speculators, Jon Birger wrote that oil "speculators" are not raising the price of oil. He attributes the current oil prices to actions of Congress.^[4]

O.K. thats much better?  Someone else is being taxed more than I am!

JamesLT:

Tell ya what I am glad I live in the US go to this link and scroll about halfway down you'll see prices for the whole world and believe me we got it easy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_usage_and_pricing

Whoa! Sierra Leone has to pay over $18/gallon!!!

Never drove a day in my life. So let gas go to $108.00 per gallon. I wouldn't care. - The Imax!™

imaxcafe:

Never drove a day in my life. So let gas go to $108.00 per gallon. I wouldn't care. - The Imax!™

You are not looking at the whold picture, Imax.  As gas prices go up, then everything we buy that depends on gas in some fashion would also go up.  Example, fresh fruits delivered to your market ... okay, "almost fresh" fruits.  You can guarantee that while a small increase gets absorbed for a long time, an increase like that would cause a very large increase.  Bananas @ .79/pound (sorry, not going to convert to other currency in here)  ... no more.  You can count yourself lucky if you can get bananas for less than $100/pound after the cost of gasoline goes up.  Even Wal-Mart will have to pay more to bring bananas into the store.

Why do you think the price doesn't affect you?  Unless someone else is paying ALL of your bills, it does.

I don't know if we can eliminale oil entirely from our lives, but I do know that we didn't use so much oil 120 years ago.  I don't want to live back then, but oil was certainly not running our lives.  Perhaps we should look closer at what we can do to reduce our dependence on oil ...

Wind power, solar power ... good starts. 

JMHO...  <G>

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!

Listen to this person on youtube and pass it along. It will explain some things. Also listen to his most current ones. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xIPART47bIs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xIPART47bIs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>