Throughout the summer of 2008, gas prices have hit record highs, hurting the pockets of many Americans who relied on low gas prices to get to work without breaking the bank. While they continue to hover near $4 a gallon, many Americans think the prices are outrageous, but they may be surprised to learn that in many countries across the world prices have been far above this rate for years.

Europe has been notorious for high gas prices compared to the US, and reportedly the prices are rising further there, just like they have in America. In many countries in Europe, citizens were paying up to $10 for a gallon of gas at its highest point. Much of this is disguised in the exchange rate in currencies, and the fact that they use liters rather than gallons, making differences in price not immediately obvious. Some claim that the prices are not as bad as they seem in Europe because the types of auto transport are more efficient but this isn’t really the case. True, most cars over there are smaller than the stereotypical gas guzzling American SUV, but Europe does not have any secret gas saving technologies in their cars that allows them to get more miles per gallon than American ones. Especially when it comes to the trucking and auto shipping industries; their enormous rigs use up just as much gas as American trucks, putting even more of a toll on the industries than price increases in America have.

Who is to blame for these high prices? Many claim that speculators are to blame for forcing global gas prices up so much recently. However in the EU, many governments are actually to blame. Oil analysts say that nearly 60% of what people in the EU pay in gas prices is a tax that goes directly to the government. When gas prices are already at $7-$10 a gallon in Europe and rising, would it kill the government to take just a little less off the top?

So don’t feel too bad about yourself when you’re paying nearly $4 at the pump; there are people across the Atlantic who have it a lot worse off. We can all be jealous to some extent of those living in oil-rich Venezuela, which has a government owned and subsidized company to drill for oil for domestic consumption. The cost per gallon in Venezuela is an astronomically low $0.15 per gallon. Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia have all also managed to keep prices very low at about $1.20-$1.50 a gallon. Maybe we should all just put our cars on an automobile transport trucks and head over to Iraq the next time we get sick of the gas prices here.