You can't compare US gas prices at the pump to any other nation's at the pump, really because guess what, the majority of the pump price is taxes used to pay for health care among other things.

So, unless you're going to strip out taxes and compare acutal fuel cost to fuel cost, the comparison is ridiculous.

Fact check!

By having their gasoline taxed at that level, the market adjusted for very high gasoline prices... Mass transportation abounds in Europe and Japan, and many more people car-pool and drive extremely small efficient cars.

People live close to work or close to mass transport terminals, and most communities accomodate walking to stores for any neccesity.

Basically, their taxes paved the way for the development of an economy that was insulated from the impact of fluxuating gasoline prices. While America's economy is basically being destroyed by a 3.00/gallon increase over 6 years, Europe is cruising on without negative impact... They built a more stable economy, while we built a house of cards.

We should have been more heavily taxing gasoline for decades, every vote against higher fuel taxes - from any level and from any person - has basically been a vote to completely screw us over.