Peak Oil News and Message Boards

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in 1986 the magazine "the economist" created a tongue in check index
the big Mac index , it compared the price of a big mac in various countries versus their exchange rate
the big mac is a very calibrated product , identical worldwide , its basic components are freely traded on the world market
the only variables being the cost of labor , local taxes and various "cost of doing business

I've introduced the local price price of one liter of gasoline .
I'm not too sure what it all means , exect that the US win hands down on the gas to grease ratio

Price in US Dollar for one big mac and one liter
sources , both for jully 2016
http://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/
http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index
$/Ltr bigmac
Hong Kong 1.83... 2.48
Norway 1.72... 5.51
Neederland 1.63... 3.80
Italy 1.61... 4.62
Israel 1.59... 4.38
Denmark 1.58... 4.44
Greece 1.56... 3.69
Finland 1.53... 5.06
Sweden 1.52... 5.23
Portugal 1.51... 3.36
Germany 1.45... 4.17
Britain 1.46... 3.94
Swisterland 1.46... 6.59
France 1.43... 4.31
Belgium 1.41... 4.35
Turkey 1.41... 3.35
N. Zealand 1.35... 4.22
Singapore 1.34... 4.01
Spain 1.26... 3.85
S. Korea 1.26... 3.86
Czech rep. 1.21... 3.06
Estonia 1.17... 3.41
Hungary 1.16... 3.15
Argentina 1.16... 3.35
Japan 1.12... 3.47
Brazil 1.12... 4.78
Poland 1.11... 2.42
China 0.96... 2.79
India 0.96... 2.41
Australia 0.94... 4.30
South Africa 0.91... 2.10
Thailand 0.89... 3.40
Canada 0.88... 4.60
Taiwan 0.76... 2.15
USA 0.66... 5.04
Saudi Arabia 0.24... 3.20

When it comes to fuel prices on the forecourts, it's really down to the level of local fuel taxes that determine the price.
All the other costs involved in running a fuel station are relatively small in comparison.

First, I always liked the idea of a shopping basket index prepared by an objective source. Gives some insight into every day inflation vs. all the paranoia that government data is rigged, etc. (Obviously, a well rounded list of, say, 12-15 products is preferable to only one or two).

Second, apparently costs vary a lot for Big Macs across America. In Lexington, KY, a smallish city in central KY, Big Macs are only about $4.00. (Price methodology is average price for sandwich only in the country, according to the link at the end of the Economist article linked above).

Finally, being value oriented, I never understand why people pay for the "premium" sandwiches/entrees, when you can often get 3 or so times the food for the money buying a deal -- this goes for all popular fast food places. In Lexington, KY, 4 cheeseburgers, which will feed two, is a much better deal (IMO) than one big mac. Or three McDoubles, etc.

....

(And yeah, I know, fast food is bad for me. But I also exercise and eat a whole lot of salads and fresh foods, and don't smoke, drink, eat desserts, drink pop, etc. so the overall picture must be considered).

I've noticed the prices varying alot like that as well. Being in NY it's obviously very expensive. I travel a lot for work and it's amazing how much it all varies. A couple states over and it might be 15-20% less. Extremely noticeable. (And sort of depressing to see how much cheaper everything is for some)

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Certainly any index is imperfect ,
however , keeping in mind plenty of reservations ,
It show a petrol price of less than 1.00$ for the US ,Australia and Canada
and above 4.00 $ for some major European countries
the Big Mac doesn't have such a wide variation.
should the US use the same tax level ,increasing gasoline price by 3.00$ would raise 1.629 trillions dollar annually
thus balancing the budget .
I'm not saying it's a good idea or even politically possible ,but that's the size of the elephant

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=23&t=10