Bullsh#t! The government's inflation calculator says that $0.30/gal in 1961 should equate to $2.20/gal today. Figures never lie, but reporters with an agenda do.
Posted on 08/11/2008 7:17:45 AM PDT by shrinkermd
After studying the average yearly price of gasoline from 1949 to 2007, and assigning the number "1" to the ratio in 1960, we found today's prices comparable to what they were in 1960 (1.35 today to 1.00 in 1960, with a high of 3.32 in 1998). The higher the gasoline affordability index figure, the lower the price of gasoline relative to disposable income.
Anger about rising fuel prices has taken a while to build because, until the last year or so, the increases could be shrugged off as natural year-to-year price variation. Moreover, pump prices still seemed relatively cheap given increases in personal wealth. Personal disposable income since 2000, for instance, has increased by an average of about $4,800 a person. Those very real increases in economic well-being reduced the pain of higher prices at the pump. People didn't notice that real gas prices were higher because the percentage of their income going to the gas station was at an all-time low until recently.
...But perception is not reality where gas prices are concerned. By June of this year, disposable income had risen by an average of $1,627 per person over last year's figures, according to the Department of Commerce, while the average person's real expenditures on gasoline increased by about $490. Our incomes are still outpacing gasoline price increases. The problem is that our incomes aren't outpacing the increase in gas prices lumped together with increases in everything else -- air conditioning, food, etc. Our homes, meanwhile, are losing value.
But gasoline is more affordable than it was during the early 1960s, an era fondly remembered by many as halcyon days of cheap fuel and gas-guzzling American cars. We're overlooking that context because it's easier to remember 1998, when we saw the lowest inflation-adjusted gasoline prices in recorded history.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
This is garbage. Gasoline in 1998 was around 80 cents a gallon and there hasn’t been any sort of a four - one increase in living costs since then.
Gas was about 27 cents a gallon circa 1962. I was making a dollar an hour. THAT was minimum wage. I now make 30.00 an hour but minimum wage is what? You do the math.
We are spending less as a percentage of income on energy than 25 years ago. When gas prices started to rise, this was pointed out. However, the liberals are trying to use this now to keep us from drilling.
“A big surprise on gas (fuel is more affordable than it was during the early ‘60s)”
So what! We produced the majority of our fuel back then also. Something we desperately need to do again.
It’s a matter of National economics, and security as well as price.
We send millions of dollars per day to other Nations for our oil. We are at risk if war, or situations rekindle similar to the early ‘70’s when OPEC squeezed us.
We need to drill our own oil period.
Bullsh#t! The government's inflation calculator says that $0.30/gal in 1961 should equate to $2.20/gal today. Figures never lie, but reporters with an agenda do.
Well, '98 was a bit of an anomaly; that was the worst year of the Asian flu, and while gas did drop below $1.00 for a while, it had been up around $1.40 before, and it went back up to that level or somewhat higher soon after. We were in a bit of a slowdown at that time too, at least the tech center was.
That and the price of everything else skyrocketed as well, Education, Health Insurance, 401(k) and Housing. As long as energy prices shrunk, these increases didn’t hurt as much.
GIGO
You can shock the sh!t troops
But Ya Cannot sh!t the shock troops!
-Author Unknown
(old Marine Corps saying)
Bull****
Well, physicists tell us that the universe is expanding, so I suppose that explains at least part of it. (Chuckle)
Seriously: Thanks for pointing that out. Not only are individual drivers driving farther than they used to, there are also more vehicles per family now than there were in the 1960s.
By the way: Does anyone know how average U.S. car mileage has developed during this period of time?
Regards,
“The higher the gasoline affordability index figure, the lower the price of gasoline relative to disposable income.”
The index is a bit counterintuitive. Apparently the lower the index, the less affordable the gas.
in 1951 it was 14 cents.
It isn't true at all and just another attempt by leftist to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters. They are scared that a vast majority of us have finally figured out what they are up to with all the enviro regs.
I graduated HS in 1959. During the 60s I made between 2 bucks an hour and 3.50 per hour. Gas ranged during that time between 25 cents per gallon and 30 cents per gallon, sometimes less because back then we had Gas Wars. Competing stations would lower prices until one of them broke.
These wars were outlawed, yep, the politicians made it illegal for stations to compete against each other so today we never have gas wars and prices rarely differ by more than a few cents.
The whole point of this is the wages I made then were more than capable of paying for Gas, rent, food and clothes. I worked, my wife didn't and we made it just fine, two cars and I bought a house.
Telling people that todays wages and prices are the same ratio as they were then is BS. You can make anything look good on paper, but those of us who lived through it know better.
I don’t buy it.
In the early 60s my father was paying about 14 cents per gallon for heating oil. Today the price is $ 4.64.
I really don’t think official inflation has been that high over 45 years.
But what was your father’s income in the 60s ?
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