Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on June 21, 2013
Upset About the Price of Gasoline? Get Some Perspective Here
Think gasoline is expensive? It’s all relative. The cost of filling up the 39-gallon tank of a Chevrolet Suburban in Turkey is $389.22, while in the U.S. it’s $137. In Venezuela, it’s just $1.56.
The price of gas is one of the most universal complaints — whether it’s teeth gnashing at the water cooler or deadly protests on the streets. This week, we’ve launched a new data visualization about the price of gas around the world that shows which countries are most justified in their laments. Hint to my fellow Americans: We’re not even close.
A 12-bottle lot of Musigny Maison Leroy 1985 fetched $26,950 at a Zachys sale in New York this month. Source: Zachys via Bloomberg.
The project started with a simple question: How much does the price of gas vary country to country? My colleagues at Bloomberg Rankings, a team of number junkies that enjoys making lists of the Best-and-Worst everything, thought a simple comparison of prices wasn’t good enough. Americans paying $3.52 a gallon with an average income of $140 a day aren’t hurting as much as Mexicans paying a similar price with a daily wage of $30.
The result was a quarterly gas price slideshow that showed both price and “Pain at the Pump” — the percentage of daily income needed to afford a gallon of gas. The slideshow was so popular, the Bloomberg Visual Data team decided to turn it into… well, you’ll just have to click here and see for yourself.
The third tranche of data for the new interactive graphic was inspired by an insightful Bloomberg.com reader, Simon Lim, who pointed out that cheap gasoline can be a mixed blessing when it encourages people to overindulge. The U.S. has some of the most affordable gas in the world, but since Americans burn through more fuel than anyone else, even cheap gas can cost a lot.
We’ll be updating the interactive graphic every quarter with new gas prices and more context about what’s driving them in each of the 60 countries we profile.
5 Comments on "Upset About the Price of Gasoline? Get Some Perspective Here"
Plantagenet on Fri, 21st Jun 2013 9:01 pm
Gasoline is still cheap in the USA. However, given that Obama has just blundered by inserting the USA into the middle of the Islamic internecine religious war in Syria, cheap gasoline prices may not last much longer.
Hugh Culliton on Fri, 21st Jun 2013 9:56 pm
Don’t like the price of gas? Just wait – these ARE the good old day.
BillT on Sat, 22nd Jun 2013 2:06 am
$10 gas coming soon to a pump near you. Or Rationed. Or not available. All three.
Beery on Sat, 22nd Jun 2013 3:15 am
Turkey is smart to make oil so expensive – they have a buffer against rising oil prices, and if they’re really smart they’re putting that money into subsidizing businesses that will be more successful in the peak and post-peak world. America’s journey into the post-peak world will be much harder for the fact that our gasoline is currently so cheap.
Kenz300 on Sat, 22nd Jun 2013 2:38 pm
Bring on the electric, flex-fuel, biofuel, hybrid, CNG, LNG and hydrogen fueled vehicles. End the oil monopoly on transportation fuels.
Better yet buy a bicycle or take mass transit and reduce your monthly transportation expense.