[geeks] Mr Bill?

[wa2egp at att.net]

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Sheldon T. Hall" <shel at artell.net>
>
>  Quoth wa2egp at att.net ...
> 
> >(How many people today remember gas at < $.30/gal?)
> 
> In the USA?  Everyone over 60, at the very least, in most of the country.
> Maybe 55.  In other words, lots of folks.

More like late fifties if they had good memories from childhood.
 
> In other parts of the world, the number will vary widely, since gasoline's
> price at the pump is more a function of political factors than economic
> ones.
> 
> Here in France, for example, gasoline currently runs about US$8.00 per US
> gallon.  I expect, but do not really know, that it has always been about
> twice the price here as in the USA, primarily as a result of taxes.

I always wondered about that.  I alway thought it was unfair too since I forgot about the tax angle which probably boosted the price.  Wonder what the pretax price is.

> Although I have seen old pictures of sub-one-franc-per-litre prices posted
> at gas stations, and the Franc was always fairly cheap against the dollar,
> in buying-power terms, that was probably still a real chunk out of a
> Frenchman's wallet.
> 
> On the other hand, isn't gasoline in Nicaragua (or somplace Latin like that)
> still in the under-a-dollar range?  It's probably cheap in Kuwait, too.

Yeah, but I think less people can afford to drive in those places.

Bob