Taxing Times

The USA trucking company I use for container haulage out of NYNY and Charlston has just increased their fuel surcharge to 28% because the average diesel price has gone up to USD 3.71/gal as of end Feb!

A USA gal costs USD 8.25 on average in the UK and converted up to imperial the comparative prices are 4.45 and 10.00 US Dols.

Just think how much better off the USA Treasury would be if they paid UK Style tax on their gas- but there'd probably be a revolution as well


BBC reporter Jon Leyne filled up his car in No Taxes at all Libya the other day for only 1 cent a gal but then Col Qaddafi is insane of course.

To be correct - he was insane for many years , then he wasn't for a few years recently, but now he is again.

Maybe we're all insane for putting up with it all.



TimR

£1.28 per litre in the garages around here for unleaded petrol. My arithmetic makes that £5.76 per UK gallon, so therefore £4.75 per US gallon. Or $7.75. And we are among the cheaper areas for petrol. From what I saw down south last weekend, many areas of England are far more expensive than that. Lord knows what it is in the rural areas now. And don't even think of filling up at any of the motorway service stations - they were charging around £1.36. Diesel I believe is even more expensive.

This is why I am commuting by bike as much as possible now.

But it is a regular topic of conversation over here about what might happen if Americans had to pay the same price as we do for petrol and diesel. And vice versa. At least the high cost has most of us actually thinking about our fuel consumption and if our journeys are really necessary.

There's a whole other debate in this one.

Just think how much better off the USA Treasury would be if they paid
UK Style tax on their gas - but there'd probably be a revolution as well

A-men! I couldn't agree more. What we pay for energy is absurdly cheap.

We've always been odd that way. We didn't like taxes back in the 1770s and had a revolution because of them (and other things, too, of course). But then, Washington and Hamilton discovered it cost money to run a nation and the public screamed for roads and jails and to be saved from drought and flood, and lo and behold, there were taxes.


A couple of centuries later, and we still don't like the tax word, so we gave tax cuts to everyone but especially to the very, very rich, and by gum, we're in debt! But we -- all of us -- still scream to be protected from droughts and floods and things that crawl in the night. Somehow we think all these "services" come free from "somewhere" like milk comes from the supermarket.

But I suspect that, despite all the screaming and ranting, we're too complacent to have another revolution.

Here, diesel is the cheapest. These days its at about 1.5 GBP. Other types are a bit higher. Ive heard its gonna get even higher, and land at almost 1.7 GBP. Per litre that is.
I dont mind much though. I only drive to work and home, and thats about 12 km each way. People complaint too much around the world IMO. Get sick, and you wont complain about the taxes anymore. Im gonna get some knee surgery soon, and it will cost me about 50$. I'd happily pay for the gas!

Here in the heart of the Mid West, diesel is up to $3.69/gal US. Lucky for me I solved the hardening of the arteries of my diesel giant and have gone back to running on recycled fryer grease! Paying only motor fuel taxes is a whole bunch cheaper than paying for petro - diesel!


(that's 1 piper and 2 Scottish dancers and an Irish audience!)

Jay

Jay Gaydosh wrote:
(that's 1 piper and 2 Scottish dancers and an Irish audience!)

Jay

Ah c'mon Jay. it's St David's Day. Can't you find something Taffy to put in as well. Otherwise Kev, the Dragon boys and our other Welsh wonders will feel hurt.

Couldn't find anything spefically Welsh.

OK, It's 2 Irishmen and Welsh in the audience!

How much can a Scotsman drink?

On december the 20th i filled up for £74 on jan 20th it was £85 !!. a tank of diesel is about 60 litre's and at £85 a tank that will last me at most 3 days , on a bad week i can fill up 4 times , so in a month i will use £700 of fuel . luckily (i have to pay tax on it ) have a company fuel card otherwisw i will loose 3/4 of my wages on fuel and have to wait to get it back on expenses the next month .

i can see them taking it off me in the near future , then i will be looking for a new job

Oh dear! I've tried to stave this off but...

I can remember when I could fill the car up and have enough change from a tenner for a can of Coke and a Mars Bar. My other half can remember filling up his first car and having enough change from £1 for a packet of 10 Players no. 6.

Cue the Hovis music and set up a well-known Monty Python sketch on the video player. Luxury!

How about 2 pipers, 3 Scottish dancers, 5 drunken Irishmen and ... A pair of Welsh ponies!

OK Ok Ok . . . When I bought my first car, gasoline was 20 cents a gallon.

So there.

I think half of it was taxes -- or somptin like that.

Yeah? How many gallons did it take to fill up that Ford Model T then, Jim?

fiona wrote:Yeah? How many gallons did it take to fill up that Ford Model T then, Jim?

OH! That was just cold... especially riding in the RUMBLE SEAT!

The way the drafts come in the rear of our van just now, we'd be as well having one of those. Be warmer.

Ahh, no . . . It was a 1953 (maybe 4) Mercury Montenegro, orange body, cream-white top. Rumble, rumble. Prolly had a 20-gallon tank. You do the math. Bought it in '56. I was a randy college student back then . . .

Sigh. Loved that car more than I've ever loved one since -- 'till the one I have now, at least. But then, to me (at least these days) cars are just to get me between places.

OK, I'm confused (as usual), the Mercury Monterey was madefrom 1950 to 1968 (three generations). The Montego was made 1968 to 1976 (Name reused in 2005 to 2007). (I was made in 56, delivered to the show room in 1957! )

Monterey:



Montego:



Both very cool cars, although I prefer the Monterey. Reminds me of that commercial for Gulf, where the guy stops for $.50 in gas, because he spent $10 on a new chrome, foot-shaped gas pedal). After all the service he got, out of guilt, he ponied up for $.25 more in gas! Stuck with me, not sure why!

[url=Gulf COmmercial]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpkLbRQ5sE4[/url]

Jim, What year did you change your name from Randy to Jim?

Jay

Monterey! Sorry. Brain fart, I guess. Been a few years.

That car looks a lot like mine!

You said what colors, the year and the model... It's amazing what you can find in a Google search for photos!

You have been around long enough to qualify for an extended allotment of brain farts.

Unfortunately, I'm over my quota!

We learned a possibly quite revealing statistic whilst sharing a dinner table with a very nice young-ish, Wall St juniors type couple(i.e.<35) from NY state in Barcelona a while back.

The conversation inevitably strayed to Obama and their worries about "the race to socialism" and why should their tax dollars pay for free health care for people who don't work etc. etc.

Based on few "back of the envelope" calculations it seemed the New Yorkers paid about the same as the average UK citizen in Income tax, city tax, state tax, sales tax whatever. We pay roughly 45% gross here for the lot i.e. income tax, rates and in addition get an old age pension.

However, on top of the similar tax burden the NY'ers then had to take out/pay for medical insurance, a dental plan, pension plan etc. etc. so it seemed superficially that they were paying about the same amount of tax for less quite a bit less.

May not be typical of course or is it?

Thks

TimR

Back to our regularly scheduled program!

fiona wrote:Cake? Where?

Gimme.

Hah. I won the bet that time.

will baddeley wrote:

fiona wrote:Cake? Where?

Gimme.

Hah. I won the bet that time.

I thought "let them eat cake" was a French thing!

Damn, I could have one serious diabetic "incident" with that one. Just give me one minute in the room alone with that cake and I could be comatose for a week!

Hope the guys with the lift put on shoe covers before performing their balancing act over the cake!

Howzit Guys,

Here in Hawaii gas has gone up to $4.09 a gallon regular and our shipping company "Matson" has increased they fuel charge to .8% to there shipping charges. Boy, the price you pay for living in paradise!!

A Hui Hou,
-Tim

Tim, you don't need gas! Just hop on your surf board and float around the island!

Jay Gaydosh wrote:Tim, you don't need gas! Just hop on your surf board and float around the island!

O.K. Jay, We Won't Go There........ I'm even thinking about buying a scooter to get around the islands. I'm just glad that we don't the amount of roads that you all have back in the states.

A Hui Hou,
-Tim