@Holly Saunders Regarding the exchange rate, when I went to Europe in 1972, the British Pound was equivalent in strength to well over 4 U.S. Dollars! The Canadian rate has also dived over the years. The "cages" here post daily the rates, since there are many foreign tourists here. Canadian Dollar recently has been as low as $ 0.70 USD. Still, foggy concepts in my mind.......... Frank
Yes I remember as a teen many people taking advantage of holidays in the USA due to the amazing exchange rate... no longer sadly...
Incredible to think of that now isn't it?... a 2 bedroom house around these parts costs over £300,000 and only the land that it sits on... anything more like an acre or 2 , but no more than that would cost up to and over a million and a half.... that's just this area where I live in the rural edge north of London... In the city the property is eye wateringly expensive..
We don't get those things out of the Fuel duty... The price of healthcare , and schooling is not ''free'' the cost is taken from our salaries at source...
I was so hoping that one of you across the pond would bring some light to the subject and voila, here comes Holly! Thank you because if I had written anything then I fear a political battle would be coming along shortly thereafter. Would I be correct by saying that the fuel duty only pays for the roads and highways and the maintenance of them? Here, the fuel is taxed by the county, the state and the federal government and it’s supposed to pay for the roadway infrastructure.
NO Bobby unfortunately it's not used for that, it' what they laughingly call a 'users' fee.... We pay annual road fund tax ( vehicle Excise duty) on our cars..dependent on how clean or green your car is, and the size.. the more or less you pay. I have a small car just 1.4ltr engine, runs on unleaded fuel, and my road fund tas x is £130 per year, so you can see that much bigger and less green engines ( especially diesel) would be much more expensive annually The road fund tax is the one which is supposed to pay the maintenance of highways etc.... Now until recently we've always prided ourselves on having good highway structure, , and given the high road fund tax, so we should, but our road have now , in the last 2 or 3 years sunk into major disrepair, pot holes big enough to sink a family car , flooding etc, and nothing done to repair them, despite the the approx £40 billion pounds received by the government in road tax fees every year... here's a little bit about that... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motoring_taxation_in_the_United_Kingdom
Our fuel taxes are SUPPOSED to be dedicated to roads and highways. Actually it is all thrown in to the general fund and siphoned of in bits and pieces for non related projects.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/taxana...rk-because-politicians-broke-it/#468ddfb46bf1 I thought there was a glitch in your statement so I had to look it up. According to Forbes, some of the general fund is actually funneled into the Highway Trust fund to keep it going.
Yes, we're now offering Gasoline at any station in town for more than $4 per US gallon. I saw a Chevron station yesterday offering their top grade for $5.09 per gallon. That may seem outrageous, but it's a bargain compared to what they're paying in Europe and Asia! When I started buying Petrol for my first car, (for which I paid $35), it was 20 cents per gallon. Hal
Petrol here is very expensive... it's cheapest at the supermarket garages.. @£1.24 per litre... 4.5 litres in a UK gallon... = £5.58 per gallon..equivalent at the current conversion rate to $7.28 US dollars!! However at BP and the independents, they are charging a whopping £1.40 per litre, £6.03 per gallon..or the US equivalent of $7.86 per gallon
@Holly Saunders @Hal Pollner Consider the fact that a few years ago, the U.S. depended heavily on foreign oil: we bought 20% of that used from foreign sources. Back then we were subject to foreign oil's pricing and delivery whims. Thanks to "fracking" in the area of Williston, North Dakota, (whether you agree with the method or not), today we SELL U.S. oil to Saudi Arabia, and others, who use and re-sell it as needed. We need to import NO foreign oil to get by. Try explaining, then, the ever-higher prices here! Frank
Lots of factors contribute to the cost of gasoline; the price of oil is significant but only one part of the equation.