At 12:34 PM 3/18/2003 -0800, you wrote:

>consumption? No wonder Europe in general thinks America in general is
>spoiled...we are. They have been paying $4-$5 PER GALLON for years.

Not all of that is based on our personal habits.  Many Europeans have been 
paying $4-$5 a gallon for a long time because they have been overtaxed for 
longer that we have been a country.  They have socialized everything and 
the people there know no other way of life.

Do I consider myself spoiled?  No.  I have been to all of those parts of 
the world and I am not spoiled, I am LUCKY to have been born in the 
greatest country in the world with the greatest level of living standard in 
the world.  Spoiled denotes some sort of notion that we have something that 
we don't deserve, and that simply isn't true.

Here I am, back in the middle again. :-)


In liberty,

Scott

wood@myblueheaven.com
www.myblueheaven.com