>Excuse me, but last time I checked the cost of a gallon of gas in most OPEC nations is close to nothing (two months ago I purchased close to 26 gallons for less than $3.00 USD - yep, you heard me right!). Also, in many countries the true necessities are subsidized by the goverment to keep costs low for the middle to lower class workers (transportation comes to mind, as well as medicine and food - in the US we just stockpile cheese somewhere under a mountain).


Forget for oil-producing countries. Compare prices in countries which are not oil-producers. All over the Europe the price is over $4 per gallon.
It is a mith that government could aford to keep cost low with subsidies, it will be not enough early budget to cover monthly oil-price jump :-)