Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Did you mean "developed countries"? Because I got tired of copying Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_and_diesel_usage_and_p...) after:

  Country        US$ / US Gallon
  U.S.           $3.74
  Vietnam        $1.03
  Yemen          $2.76
  Turkmenistan   $0.72
  Tunisia        $3.75
  Trinidad       $2.42
  Taiwan         $3.78
  Syria          $3.15
  Saudi Arabia   $0.49
  Quatar         $0.83
  Puerto Rico    $3.63
  Peru           $3.60
  Panama         $3.14
  Pakistan       $3.46
  Malaysia       $2.31
  Indonesia      $2.23
  Egypt          $1.17


He did mean developed country. The US pays about two-thirds what Australians do for petrol, who in turn pay about two-third what Europeans do for petrol.

The panic that the US gets itself into when discussing fuel prices is amusing to watch. Australia is a big country with spread out cities like the US (or even more than the US) and similar wage levels, yet we don't have problems with post-paying cash for our fuel. In six weeks of driving around the US west a couple of years ago, I never found a single place where I could post-pay with cash - they were all too afraid of drive-offs. Weird.

Also, you've mangled the statistics - for example, you've used Vietnam's price per litre against the US's price per gallon.


I never found a single place where I could post-pay with cash - they were all too afraid of drive-offs.

Many municipalities in the US have made post-pay illegal, so even if gas stations wanted to offer it they couldn't.


Excuse my ignorance, but what does "post-pay" mean?


Paying for the gasoline after you put it in the vehicle. At most gas stations in the US, if you want to pay with cash, you park your vehicle at a pump, go inside and prepay a certain amount, fill up your vehicle, and then go back inside to collect any money you didn't spend.


Thanks for the correction on Vietnam - I double checked and wasn't able to find another instance of mangling, but since you said "for example", I imagine there are others I missed.


Most of those are oil producing countries which subsidize oil locally, and several of them are not developing countries.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: