With cheap gas, Venezuelans buy big SUVs
The car show is filled with men who gravitate to the sport utility vehicles, peering through their windows and slipping into their leather seats.
Many say they're looking for a powerful engine, but no one asks about gas mileage. In oil-rich Venezuela, gasoline costs as little as 12 cents a gallon due to government subsidies — and SUVs are selling briskly.
"Everyone wants to buy a 4x4," said Jose Moreno, a 49-year-old businessman examining Fords at the show on Saturday. "And since gasoline is cheap, you don't think twice about spending on that."
Venezuelans see cheap fuel as a birthright. Filling up an SUV's tank with high-octane gasoline costs roughly $3 — less than two jugs of drinking water.
It looks like the evil, rich Americans aren't the only ones who want to drive big SUV's. The poor, Socialists in Venezuela want the same thing. I guess Americans aren't inherently evil, it's just basic human greed that is inherent in all of us.
Shakespeare reveals human nature brilliantly: he shines a light on our instinctive desire to dominate each other. Edward Hall
The other day a NYC boy roundly and soundly read out a whole class full of aggie kids for their wasteful ways, driving pickups, and bragged on his wonderfully more ecological use of a bicycle for transportation. They didn't know quite what to tell him...