Nick, so all the guys and gals who get airborne every day from small airfields and private sites need permission from a guy in a tower and a guy with a radar? Oh dear I'd better start a thread on the GA forum telling them that or they will carry on breaking your imaginary rules.
And so US airports are all unmanned, have no ATC and your airspace is unregulated so that no ATC clearance is required - JFK must be a laugh a minute.
I know it is not just fuel costs alone - the weather factor in many parts of the US helps enormously to entice pilots to train there but you can't tell me that licensing and admin costs are the biggest difference.