A Couple of Recipes

1. Send out geologists to explore the world and find oil fields.
2. Erect expensive drilling rigs and send down a few test holes.
3. If the field is viable, erect lots more rigs and start drilling in earnest.
4. Ship the oil half-way around the world in vast, unbelievably expensive super-tankers.
5. Process the crude oil in high(ish) tech, purpose built industrial plants.
6. Distribute the resultant petrol in fleets of lorries to petrol stations throughout the country.
7. Sell the petrol for about £5.00 a gallon, ~62.5 pence a pint.

People bitch about the price, most of which is government tax.

1. Gather apples from relatively local orchards.
2. Send these to a local pressing plant.
3. Extract the juice in a low tech press.
4. Add a smidge of yeast and leave it for about a week to ferment.
5. Bottle or keg it.
6. Distribute the bottled/draught cider to moderately inexpensive off-licenses and pubs throughout the country.
7. Sell it for £3.45 a pint, or a whopping £27.60 a gallon.

It’s a very similar, simple story with beer. There’s still a serious amount of kill-joy government tax. People relatively happily, it appears, hand over the cash.

Which seems more exorbitant?