EDITORIAL
BY DHIREN SHAH
Hello Readers,
A wonderful holiday season to all our readers. At this holy time of year, I must thank all of Local Talk’s readers and advertisers for supporting us continuously over the past 23 years. As usual, we will be off for the holidays next week. So, the next edition of Local Talk will be published in January. So once again, have a wonderful time this season and a happy new year.
As you all know, times have changed. We are all connected to our cell phones. It became a necessity in life. Large companies use their resources to advance new age, technology including AI (Artificial Intelligence). We get the news and easy communications a lot faster via phones and messages. However, our independent thinking is going down. Our habits are changing. Before, we used to cross the road looking both ways and making sure both sides were clear. However, the new obsession with phones makes us dumb. Now we get so much into it that many times people do not look for traffic before crossing the street. Every year, more and more accidents happen while people are crossing the street, and a few have lost their lives.
In New Jersey Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden) introduced legislation to start charging a $50 fine for pedestrians who cross the street while texting or being busy with their phones and forget about looking for oncoming traffic. Also, repeat offenders may go to jail for up to 15 days. This is the same penalty as jaywalkers. However, I have not heard about officers issuing tickets for jaywalkers. Finally, when children are small, it is the responsibility of the schools to teach them how to cross the street. If the children create a good habit, they will follow the system throughout their life. So, there must be some kind of instruction that should be given by the schools in my opinion. Parents are supposed to do this, but they are lacking in this regard.
Gas prices across the world are so far apart country to country. The lowest price per gallon of petrol (gas) is in Iran, which is under 11 cents a gallon. Followed by Libya and Venezuela, which is under 13 cents a gallon. Our main supplier of gas, Saudi Arabia, has about $2.35 per gallon. The USA is in the middle at #31 with about $3.45 per gallon. The United Kingdom has about $6.39, and Israel has about $7.21 per gallon. And the highest price in the world is Hong Kong with about $11.26 per gallon. All prices are based on the US Dollar and the prices comparison is from December 11, 2023.
I was wondering like all of you: Why are gas prices so high in one country compared to the other when the world petroleum market is the same? The main reason for the high prices is taxes. The United States is the highest user of gas using over 19 million barrels per day, followed by China, India, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Korea, Germany, and Canada. Some countries use only 50 barrels per day. However, their population and need for travelling is about nil.
I thought about gas usage and prices because of the way the world is turning and how global warming effecting the world.
Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.
