Un-thrifty Thursday

My girlfriend A writes this thing called Thrifty Thursday on her blog.  She talks about deals and  finds in and around Santiago.  And in her genius, she inadvertantly sparked the idea for this post - Un-Thrifty Thursday.  I don't foresee this being a weekly post like hers is because who wants to focus on finding a bad deal instead of a good one?  But this one was just begging me to write it, so here goes.

Being that Chile is very close to the end of the world (literally) and being as I don't speak the language fluently (I am still a beginner), I don't get a lot of news from the U.S. in my daily life.  I could read online newspapers or or other news sites, but I don't have a huge amount of free time in my life, and I  would rather spend it on things I deem fun, not work.  So I get a lot of my news from Facebook (don't knock it until you have to try it.  People post some very informative links to great articles).  But lately all I seem to see are posts about the price of gas.  There are funny cartoons, witty comments and links to articles focused on the need to bring the prices back in line.   I understand the need to get the frustration out.  I know we need to vent a bit, even if it is about something we really can't control.  And when it hits the pocketbook, it's hard to resist the urge.  But we also have to look at it with a bit of perspective.  Well, maybe this isn't everyone's perspective, but it is mine.

Yes, gas prices are high. Though not yet to the all time highs of 2009, when prices in the U.S. hovered over $4.10 a gallon. But let's take this into consideration- Even at our highest of $4.10, we are no where near the top of the list for expensive gas. Even here in Santiago, where we pay on average a bit over $6.00* a gallon, gas is still relatively cheap compared to the places where gas prices are considered the highest in the world.

Based on this article in Business Insider, Santiago doesn't even make the top 15 for high gas prices.  Most of those that do make the list come from Europe. Most of these cities have high taxes added into their prices as the countries are trying to offset debt, but a dollar (or Nakfa) is a dollar and it doesn't matter where it goes at this point, it is still a dollar out of my pocket.  What would my Facebook say if gas was over $9.50 a gallon???

There are things we can do - stop driving gas guzzling cars, drive less and carpool more, perfect the electric car, find another source of fuel - or we can just suck it up, accept that if we want to drive, we must pay the price and then find something else to post about on Facebook.  (Help me out people, I need real news to read).

Or you can move to Venezuela.  You will not worry about gas prices since they are only pennies a gallon.  But you may have just traded one worry for a whole slew of others...

*Mid-range gas is 825 CLP/liter.  At an exchange rate of 491.65 CLP to the dollar that puts a liter of gas at U.S. $1.68 a liter.  Now, there are 3.78541178 liters in a gallon so simply multiply that by the $1.68 per liter.  Hence $6.36 a gallon.  I now want to hear someone complain that gas prices are getting close to $4.00 back home.