and you think $4 a GALLON is harsh?

check this out.   Man am I glad I sold my car.   One thing about this article: The Norwegian government has a tendency to raise taxes as a punitive measure to stop people using resources, etc., but then they don't offer a benefit or viable alternative for the practice they want us to stop. So, yeah, they can tax the purchase of a car at 100% and they can raise gas taxes because they want people to drive less...but then MAYBE they should make train and bus travel cheaper and more efficient so that people actually are ABLE to drive less? Give us an eco-friendly yet practical way out of the tax, you know? It''s like they are spanking a kid for doing wrong but not allowing the kid to do right!   I am ALL for public transport and I take it every day. But it drives me nuts that they charge so much to take a train or a bus, AND they charge so much to own a car. It really leaves the public with very few options for transport. Norway's a big country. In many areas there are no efficient forms of public transportation. Taxis are an absolute luxury, a cab ride home at night from central Oslo to the 'burbs (the damned trains stop running not long after midnight!) can cost $130 and up. It costs almost $10 to go one way into Oslo from the suburbs on a train. Ditto on a bus. (And the busses are not that frequent.) A monthly train/bus card lessens this cost, but not by a whole lot. (My monthly train pass costs more than my car payment used to be on my Subaru.)   Maybe, just maybe, they could invest all these gas and road and congestions taxes into the train and bus infrastructure and give us a valid, viable, easy and pleasant reason to give up our cars? Not everyone is as lucky as me and has train stations with 500 meters of both home and office.   So, hey, Norway...charge taxes all you want but spend them on things that enable us to follow the rules you seem to want us to follow! You can only spank so much!