Global Gas Prices In Perspective

Many motorists these days are complaining about the cost of gasoline, but what people consider a fair price varies greatly, depending on where they live.

Americans angrily grit their teeth as they pump $3-per-gallon gas. They think $2 is about right. In Britain, $3 sounds fanciful, people there pay about $6.40 a gallon and think $5 would be fair.

AP-Ipsos polling in the United States and eight of its allies turned up wide disparities in people's thoughts on the cost of filling up.

Spaniards would like to see gasoline for just over $3 a gallon. People in France, Italy, Germany and South Korea put the fair market price $4 or a little more. Australians and Canadians would like to see it just under $3 a gallon.

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population but consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day, about one-fourth of the global total, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

Many Europeans have found alternatives to depending on cars as fuel prices soared over the past few years. In much of the United States, however, people are addicted to the car and view it as essential to social and economic well-being. When gas prices shoot to record levels, it rattles the U.S. economy and depresses consumer confidence.

"This whole country runs on cheap gas," said Clinton Ahrens, a businessman from Dows, Iowa. Most Americans have come to expect it over the years, he said.

In much of Europe and elsewhere, gas taxes account for two-thirds or more of the price of gasoline. People in those countries look for high-mileage cars. Public transportation is well-developed.

In the U.S., taxes vary by state but amount to about 20 percent of gas prices. Fuel is cheaper in this country than in most parts of the world, investment in mass transit is minimal, gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks zoom along highways and politicians talk about increasing gas taxes, or any taxes, at their own risk.

"We do have a sense of entitlement here in the United States," said Steve Yetiv, a political scientist at Old Dominion University in Virginia who has studied the impact of energy prices.

"This stems partly from the individualism that is part of the American fabric, an individualism that prizes freedom of action and prizes the freedom to buy as big a car as you want to buy," Yetiv said.

While Billy Fillers of Sycamore, Ill., drives a Chevy Tahoe on his rounds to do X-ray repairs, his weekly gasoline bill has gone from $60 to $120. But he likes his SUV: "The bigger your vehicle, the faster your vehicle, it's a status symbol."

People in most of the countries polled agree the rising price of gasoline is causing financial hardships.

From two-thirds to three-fourths of those in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Korea and the United States say they expect increases in the price of gasoline to cause them hardships. About half in Britain said they worried about financial hardships, and one-third of respondents in Germany felt that way.

Many surveyed say there is little they can do about it.

Renato Baldini, dean of a private school in Rome, said, "I have no alternatives. The only thing I can do now is drive slower, to try and save gas."

In all the countries, women were more likely than men to see the rise in gas prices as a personal hardship.

"Women, particularly those with children at home, are much more worried than men about the financial impact of rising gas prices on the family budget," said Thomas Miller, managing director of Ipsos Public Affairs in New York.

Joyce Via, a retiree from Craigsville, Va., said the price of gas is hurting her family. "We live in a very rural area, have to drive about 23 miles to go shopping, but we won't be going as often," she said. "I'm sure it's going to have an impact on heating bills. It gets pretty cold out here."

A majority of people in most of the nations polled said they think their government can act to limit increases in the price of gasoline. In many of those countries, unhappy consumers have been pushing for more government action.

South Koreans and Germans doubted how much government can limit increases, with only one-fourth of people in each of those countries expecting much help.

The polls of about 1,000 adults in each of the nine countries were conducted between Sept. 17 and Oct. 2 and each has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.