Whoopie For Europe!

I was watching "The View" yesterday... (an enforced watching...females of the abode had "dibs" on the tv and I was forced to watch it.) and Whoopie Goldberg said that Europeans have been paying $5 or $6 per gallon for gasoline for years. Actually the Euro equivalent of $5 to $6, I suppose. Haven't you heard this a lot over the past, oh, quarter century or so? Of course, as it stands, it means nothing. It's like saying that the Tutsi in Rwanda were used to being slaughtered by Hutu, so we should not take it amiss if we are approached by strange fellows with scowls on their faces and bearing machetes. What are the taxes on petrol? What is funded by them? How are the oil companies run? What is the overall economics? Don't have a clue. I should not mind $6 per Imperial Gallon for petrol if (1) we had universal and affordable health care, (2) a public transport system that was rationally designed and implemented, (3) a lot of other idle notions.......