I'm not quite understand western rage about gas prices.
OK, gas become more expensive, shit happens. But what is the problem to ask employer to rise your salary? It's not your imagination, employer perfectly know that gas price rised. You have skills, you sell them to employer who need your skills, it is a trade and there is capitalism around. Gas prices changed, so your skills become more expensive too, since you need gas to continue to sell your skills to employer.
Another question is about salaries. In many private talks with westerners, when things come to salaries, people refuse to name the numbers. IDK, in Russia we don't have any taboos about salaries, and it is common topic for talks, when people compare their salaries, bragging about recent rise or complaining about decline. With exact numbers. "I have 150kRUB/month. Wow, I work less than you and have 170kRUB/month. My business bring me 100-200kRUB/month. I work half-day and have 70kRUB/month. You all too rich in that city, I have only 80kRUB/month in my shithole". (we used to monthly salary numbers, as tradition) I never had heard that kind of talks on western forums or in private communication. Even talking with drunk western friends in bar it is impossible to talk about each other salaries/profits. What is it? Salaries is something intimate on the west and it is indecently to discuss them?
Mee to, especially in last years, but my business allow to distance from society and I also delivered all business negotiations with customer managers, lawyers and finacists to my colleague/business partner, and I'm talking mostly with decently sane and competent engineers who directly work with our stuff so no need for me to exit.
In last years, top management, especially of large enterprises become completely dumb and insane. Sometimes seems that they even have their own crazy language and system of concepts, so it is impossible to maintain any dialogue with them. You could spend half of year just to make an agreement on each letter of contract, while enterprise losing multiples of our equipment price every month.