We americans have it good... still cheaper than most of the world. Gasoline here is cheaper than in Canada. Almost half of what Europe pays. Less expensive than Australia. It has gone up 10% in the last month, but it's still relatively cheap. Remember in the 1970s gas was 10 times less expensive than today, but so were wages. So no real change except inflation.

Which may partially explain why we don't have very many economy cars here. No car sold here for 2008 returns as good economy as a 1978 B210... except for the Prius hybrid. In Europe there are many cars that beat that old record, but they aren't sold here. Even the Smart Car that finally went on sale this month doesn't touch it. They gave us the biggest Smart with the largest gasoline engine...