I am sitting here, watching CNN reporting about high gas prices in the United States.  It is funny in a way, because right now, the average price of gasoline in Ontario, Canada is 1.35/litre, which works out to approximately $5.10 per US gallon, and our price has been at this level for almost 3 months.

Also, prices in the UK and in fact, most of Europe have been in the $8 to $10 range for the better part of 20 years.  The main reason, to my way of thinking, that the US is feeling the pain, is that the major oil companies in the US have managed to keep the price of gasoline artificially low, because of subsidies at both the state and federal level, but now that the price of a barrel of oil has risen to record levels, these subsidies can no longer offset the cost of production. 

Americans should consider themselves lucky...they still have about the cheapest gas prices on the planet, barring the Saudi and other middle eastern oil producing countries.