Subsidy envy? If only the US would let the free market reign....not!

In a ridiculous pandering to US super consumptive tastes, the Times (you may need to login to see this) had a front page article this last Sunday, titled "Fuel Subsidies Overseas Take Toll on US" --- President Bush has been complaining about the subsidy of fuel prices driving up the cost of oil. Huh?

Let's see. The US suffers up to $50 Billion dollars of losses due to traffic congestion....because we won't install tolls on the roads? WTF? How about US subsidies for Corn, Cotton, and a ridiculous tariff on ethanol produced with Brazilian cane sugar? What about the ground-rocketing (e.g. falling like a stone) US dollar?

Darn those pesky nations subsidizing fuel use! (oh, wait, see the image below, which shows a map with countries scaled for fuel use. Feeling a little bloated USA? thanks to www.worldmapper.org for this excellent visualization)