Rob, At the moment, in my part of the U.S. at least,, gasoline is running around $3.25/gal. That comes out to about $0.86/liter. At today's conversion that's about 0.65 euro. So your gas would have cost about 21 euros in the U.S.
That's a sobering - if infuriating - thought! Everything is taxed so damned much in Europe - fuel and alcoholic drinks especially in the UK.
I understand the need for tax revenue, but I think that in some cases the tax levels are too high, especially when one considers that gasoline/diesel is involved in pretty much everything in distribution, whether of factory goods or of food etc. that it ultimately has a negative effect on the economy that outweighs the money that it brings in. Adding up all those different stages when fuel tax comes into the equation, I imagine it must make up quite a large percentage of the total price of almost everythng. If 'things' were cheaper, they'd sell more of them, keeping more people employed and able to buy more.
Certainly in Britain, the tax percentage in the cost of fuel is by far the largest slice of the tart!
In my possibly simplistic view, the introduction of VAT (value added tax) which I think is currently hovering at around twenty-something percent in Spain, is to blame for a helluva lot of the country's problems. The black economy simple ignores it and so the exchequer gets nothing because people are frankly unable or unwiiling to be robbed like that; most of the plumbers, electricians, car mechanics etc. need the work to feed their families, so they step outside the law and work black - and who can blame them? Better to get paid for your work than not get any work at all because it's too expensive for your market's pockets; some jobs simply
have to get done, so the market ticks over but not all the due tax gets paid...
Maybe politicians make so much money that they are unaware of how many others in the rest of the world have to skimp and save and wriggle about to survive.
Rob C