From Simply Tim

Ga$ and Other Worldly Observations
Simply Tim | 04/21/2011 at 2:56 PM | Categories: Commentary | URL: http://wp.me/p11uGF-D0
Many Americans are begrudgingly becoming a part of a World with which they are unfamiliar. When I was living in Greece in the early 60s, I recall Europeans were paying over $3 a gallon for gasoline (due partly to heavy taxes), and even more in larger cities, which remains true worldwide today. Back then, military families like mine -- at the expense of U.S. taxpayers -- were given gas stamps such that we only paid about 75 cents per gallon after reimbursement, while Stateside prices at the pump were locked in around 30 cents a gallon. From my family's perspective at the time -- having been indoctrinated into our American mindset -- the 75 cent per gallon amount was still extraordinarily exorbitant.

I suspect many Americans nowadays have no idea what the rest of the world has been paying for gasoline and other fuel for the past half century. Even today, as we complain about rising fuel prices, the rest of the world has been dealing with it for decades.

Most homes in Europe are kept in the low 60s during the winter. They've learned it's much cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and just makes more sense to put on a sweater rather than paying extra for fuel and higher household temperatures. They've been doing this for centuries. When I visited Ireland in the early 70s, my bride and I stored 90% of our luggage in a Shannon Airport locker, and hitchhiked the country staying in bed and breakfast types of places and farm houses suggested in the then-popular travel guide series, "Ireland on $5 a Day*". At one such establishment the proprietor actually apologized for the temperature of our bedroom. As the woman stooped to turn up the heat on the tiny room's space heater, I stopped her. "That's okay," I said. "We're fine." I was beyond embarrassment. The next morning we discovered the old woman had baked a loaf of white bread during the night because she had been told that's the only type of bread Americans ate. That afternoon, my wife -- who had been a whole grain food co-op enthusiast and home baker for years -- baked a loaf of coarse brown bread in the woman's wood stove. That night we ate a traditional dinner with the proprietor's family. In their eyes, we were no longer American tourists.

Frankly, I think it's about time the American lifestyle reinvents itself, but I know that type of change doesn't happen easily or -- overnight. For now, I'd be happy if we Americans spent more time educating ourselves as to how the rest of the world lives and works, and how well-off we really are.