Gas prices
Current U.S. gas prices are cheaper than the price of gas has been in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the U.K at any time in the past decade. According to the DOE chart, gas in those countries has cost between $3.00/gallon and $7.24/gallon this past decade.
Those countries still have large and growing economies and a high material standard of living. But they don't have cheap gas the way the U.S. does.
