General Generic Beer by Miller.
There's only one beer worse...
Posted on 06/19/2006 12:11:11 PM PDT by newgeezer
Today's gas prices are a bargain, compared to what they were nearly 25 years ago. And they're a bargain compared to other necessities, too.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in U.S. cities was $1.41 in April 1981. Excluding federal and state gas taxes, this meant the price was $1.26.
In today's dollars, that would be about $2.83 per gallon. But last month, the before-tax cost of a gallon of unleaded gasoline was just $2.29 - about 19 percent lower than that.
Given that we're living under much stricter air quality standards today than we were 25 years ago, that figure probably understates the real price reduction in gasoline prices.
In some areas of the country, motorists must use specialty fuels - the "boutique" fuels - to meet pollution standards. This adds to refining costs. As the Federal Trade Commission has noted, "Boutique fuels and differentiated access to gasoline supplies ... contribute to variability of gas prices."
And 1981 isn't the only year gasoline prices have been comparable to, or higher than, the prices today. Between July 1979 and October 1983, gasoline was fairly consistently over $2 a gallon. During much of the 1920s and 1930s, gasoline prices were higher than $2, too. In 1922, for example, the pre-tax cost per gallon was just shy of 25 cents - equal to about $3 today.
One part of our fuel bill has increased dramatically in real terms over the years: taxes. Adjusted for inflation, state and federal taxes on gasoline have increased by 868 percent since 1922 - they were only 4 cents per gallon back then - and by 50 percent since 1981, when they were just 14.5 cents.
But even with the recent rise in gas prices, gasoline prices are rising at a slower rate than many other necessities.
A half gallon of milk, for example, has increased in price from an average of $1.12 in 1981 to $2.09 last month. Milk prices have increased at a slower pace than inflation, but they've increased at a faster rate than gasoline prices. Milk prices declined in real terms by around 18.6 percent, perhaps aided by federal government subsidies that the Progressive Policy Institute says amounts to $3.32 for each of America's 9 million dairy cows, while gasoline declined by a slightly more robust 18.9 percent. Where are the critics of Big Dairy?
Bread prices also have increased relative to gasoline since 1981. The price for a pound of white bread has increased by 103 percent - about 8 percent less than the inflation rate over the period. Where are the calls for a windfall profits tax on the makers of Wonder Bread?
Moreover, the price of a first-class postage stamp has risen from 18 cents to 39 cents today - almost precisely keeping pace with the inflation rate.
Say what one will about gasoline: Whatever price you pay, it gets you where you're going. A postage stamp, on the other hand, won't necessarily get your letter delivered.
One needn't consult consumer price indexes to understand that gasoline isn't significantly overpriced. Consider, for example, how many Americans willingly pay $1 or even $1.50 for a 20-ounce bottle of drinking water. At $1, the price of that water is $6.40 per gallon - nearly 2.8 times the amount Americans paid for a gallon of gasoline last month.
If I'm not mistaken, water is the most abundant resource on the planet, it is not controlled by a cartel, its known reserves are not limited primarily to volatile areas of the world, and it requires substantially less refinement than gasoline to bring to market.
So my advice: Stop complaining about the price of your gas. Be thankful your car doesn't run on bottled water.
David Ridenour is vice president of The National Center for Public Policy Research (www.nationalcenter.org), a conservative, free-market think tank. This article was distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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[Emphasis added.]
it looks like the brand they drank in "Repo Man".
But that is a choice people make and within their control. I have moved more than once because of where I was working.
$50 every time I visit the gas station and $200 at the grocery store are all the statistics I need.
The oil companies charge so much for gasoline these days because they can.
ya know, it's funny. I hear my girlfriend make that complaint fill-up after fill-up. then she gets mad when I tell her to stop supporting idiotic Demon-rat-ic policies if she wants cheap gas. To which i get the reply "well, i support it if it keeps the air clean." ugh, i can't win...
Here we go again...conditioning the sheeple into accepting the new "settled price" of gas, along with the usualy BS comparisons of how milk is more expensive to gas, etc.
"Right. And I tire of the news stories that compare gas to milk. When was the last time you had to put 15 gallons of milk into your car?"
It's not just comparing it to the price of milk, it's comparing it to earlier prices of GAS in inflation-adjusted dollars. And another poster compared the average time it takes an average worker to "earn" a gallon of gas.
But hey, as someone else said, people want to complain about the price of gas -- and they always do -- so apparently these FACTS are largely irrelevant. Sigh.
Six-pack=72 ounces
Gallon=128 ounces
Grain Belt
Of course it is. I have said the same thing in this forum many times in the past few months. (Some people get real angry about it, too, seemingly insisting it's not within their control.)
But, since you mentioned alleged "improvements in mpg" since 1981—something which is also within their control—I just thought I'd mention the kink in your comparison.
I think it was Patrick Bedard a few months ago in Car And Driver who compared today's gas mileage to that of a decade or two ago and found that it's going down, not up, due to higher vehicle weights and consumer choice.
Can't see photo...
Red, White & Blue?
Olympia?
Of course. Your point?
It is not alleged, but certainly smaller than I expected when you look at volume averaged figures that take into account increased market share of light trucks and other lower mpg vehicles. 23.1 in 1980 and 25.2 in 2005.
SUMMARY OF FUEL ECONOMY PERFORMANCE, MARCH 2005, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, page 4
Got it!
Grain Belt in a can...nasty.
And a Cubs cap, too. The pot's right.
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