>  And do you even know how much gasoline/diesel costs here? An American
> would drop his jaw into the ground if he saw it. Translated to the US
> units, gasoline is about 9.5 dollars/gallon, and diesel is 8.3.

We're up to $9/gallon for diesel and $9.50/gallon for petrol here in Germany 
now.

>  Oh, and cars cost almost double what they cost, for example, in Germany
> because of all the taxes. (In Germany, IIRC, a tax of 16% is put on the
> price of sold cars, while in Finland it's something like 96%.)

It went up to 19% here last year, but still small compared to the 96%!  That 
is a bit ridiculous.

>  Not only that, you have to pay mandatory annual car insurance (good
> thing, I suppose)

I wouldn't like to live somewhere without mandatory car insurance, is there 
any civilised country that does not demand that?

> as well as a mandatory annual car tax (you receive
> nothing in return, it's a *pure* tax for simply *owning* a car, without
> any benefits).

In the UK you need to pay the annual "road tax", if you want to drive or 
park your vehicle on the public roads.

>  On the plus side, you'll usually get a fast broadband internet connection
> for a quite moderate price here.

Plus, I assume you also get a lot more holiday per year than is usual in 
USA.  Most countries in Europe seem to have 4-6 weeks holiday per year as 
standard.

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