"High taxes drive prices up across the board. High gasoline taxes drive the price of software up, just as high taxes drive the overall cost of living up."

XENOPHONZ,

I'm sorry but that's rubbish. The point is that it's expedient for vendors to equate the Euro with the dollar even when, as now, they're way out of line. Your gasoline tax is indirect, it's what you're paying for the war in Iraq, which is really all about securing future oil supplies.

If you think that war is preferable to reducing your energy consumption, just don't expect many Europeans to agree with you. You know that some of us are actually proud to pay taxes, to support our health services and the unemployed and undepriveleged? It's called having a social concience.