Cost comparison of 1950 gas prices to today
 

Read this in yesterdays parade magazine. I guess we don't have it so bad after all! We get more value from our gas, despite the cost being high, than people did in 1950.

True, it is easy to fall into the "I remember when" syndrome. When wasn't as good as most remember. But, at this age I think a lot like to complain as much as possible.

It’s 70’s years later and Dr would actually make house calls for $10 way back when.

And the Doctors degree cost $3,000 or something silly back then, so they could afford to make house calls for $10.

Here is an idea, lets just divide all salaries by 20 - anyone making $100/hr will tomorrow be making $5/hr ($10k/year) and divide all prices by 20, so a car costing $80K will cost $4K. That is about what they cost back then.

Then we can stop with the dreamy memories of paying $0.10 for a cup of coffee. As I tell my wife often, it's all just zeros tagged on the end. The cost is about the same today - just with zeros added, and wages are about the same today, just with zeros added.

Ah, 1950.....my father cracked the $100.00 a week barrier and we bought an Admiral TV and joined the Country Club. Also, two classmates moved into iron lungs, my grandfather died from a simple gall bladder procedure, and every kid who came to my birthday party had to take a series of rabies shots because I got a rabid puppy as a gift. The good old days.

More current comparison to gas prices of 2020 is actually a more valuable and cause/effect lesson. Parade is a typical Mass Media publication, attempting to dilute and avoid actualities of the current issue.

back in the day, on a Sunday afternoon my buddies and I would all chip in, pull into a gas station get $2 of gas and drive around all afternoon, trying to be seen in all the right places LOL

19 cents per gallon in 1964 in Los Angeles.

Divide by 20. How does that work for my cellphone, computer, tablet, and thousands of other things that didn't exist? Things are better now, in many ways. We have immense number of choices, opportunities and options in all aspects of life. We have so much more now. So why do we not appreciate what we do have like we did when we had so much less?
😶

I can remember “gas wars” in Detroit in the early ’60’s when for short times has sold for 15-20 cents a gallon.

Why compare today to 72 years ago ? Compare to just three years ago and we are literally paying double the price. Yes before the pandemic. Telling me inflation drove that? Horse puckey

Interesting how some can make excuses for anything that humans hose up. Avoid responsibility at all cost.

According to the experts, there are three factors at play:

1. Post Pandemic demand. During the pandemic people sheltered at home so the typical driver cut their demand for gas in half. That sharp decline caused gas prices to plummet to a low of $1.94/gallon in April 2020.

2. Cuts to Oil Production. As the global economy recovered from the pandemic, OPEC was slow to ramp up production. The demand was far higher than the supply, causing higher prices.

3. War on Ukraine and global sanctions make it difficult for Russian oil to flow to the global market causing a 20% spike in oil and gas prices in just weeks.

Experts say oil and gas drilling in the US has increased but companies in the U.S. are constrained by tight supplies of rigs, trucks and labor that they need to supply more oil.

Even so, when adjusted for inflation, today's fuel prices are still below their peak in 2008.

A Perspective from the Dismal Science of Economics.

As I recall, when gasoline topped $2.00 a gallon the first time, I really felt the pinch. It hurt. I think that was 1980. My Dodge convertible had a V8 motor.

In 1980 the Average Annual Wage was $12513. In 2019 (the last year available not influenced by the Pandemic) the AAW was $54100. That $2.00 gas that poked my pocket in 1980 cost, expressed in 2019 dollars, $8.65. {($54100 / $12513) * $2.00 = $8.65}

I paid $4.08 per gallon in 2022 dollars last night in Florida to fill my gas tank. So yes, inflation is real, it is here, but take a step back, gain some perspective, and quit complaining.

I think that in comparing consumer prices we should use as an inflation index the Average Annual Wage Index. AAW measures changes in wage earners' income, and it is generally income that consumers use to pay prices for everyday purchases. The measure is gathered from earnings records of all Americans who pay FICA tax, so is the broadest and most inclusive measure of income.

Unfortunately, our economy in the USA was built to thrive on cheap energy. When that energy suddenly becomes not-so-cheap, people start to feel all sorts of pain. Obviously, the level of pain felt is less for those of means...but pain is pain.

For example, minimum wage earners will suffer much more. In 1972, a minimum wage earner could buy 4.5 gallons of gas with one hour's wages. Today, that same person cannot even buy 2 gallons of gas.

Thanks for the comparison but
 

I remember when gas was $1.79 and that was only about a year ago.

It’s easy to cut the price of that $80,000 car by 2/3 by buying a decent, well made car for 1/3 the price. For much less than half you can buy a car that gets 50 mpg and just laugh when the cost of gas goes up.

So what was the cause of gas prices hovering around $2.00 in 2019, well before the pandemic?

Horse puckey? Really?

I started college in 1962. My car at that time got 20 MPG (six cylinder stick shift Ford). My college town lived on gas wars, so I generally filled up at $0.25 - $0.30 per gallon. So compared with then, it is worse today.

I’m not trying to start an argument but the $0.27 was in N. M. (New Mexico) I’m sure grandpa was a lot older than & he did live in a different part of the country. I grew up in Ohio & gas when I was 16 or 17 yrs. old I was paying $0.23 a gal. for a gal. of gas (1965) & yes cars didn’t get the great gas mileage like cars today. But to be paying $4. a gal. is punishing us because we get 3 to 4 times better gas mileage. But gas doesn’t have cost us more than a $1.00 a gal. We have enough oil in the ground here in the U. S. to last us 3 or 4 hundred yrs. we could be supplying the rest of the world instead of the other way around. All we have to do is drill but the environmental goof balls control what we can do. I see what grandpa is talking about but why aren’t other parts of the world having issues with drilling?

Gas
 

Gas price in 1970 in CT when I started driving was .35 cent per gallon, my Mercury got 13 miles to a gallon. High school was awesome!!

Not so bad?
 

According to the dept. of labor statistics, one dollar today only buys about 9% of what it could in 1950. Inflation was about 1.25%, and it was even less just two years ago. Inflation now is just under 8% and rising. I don't consider that "not so bad".

I remember paying over $5.00 a gallon, for diesel fuel,, in 2008. What is the point of all these whiny fuel prices posts? If you can't afford to drive your car, then do what other people who can't afford to drive do.... walk or ride a bicycle. Stay home. We are all in this together, whining serves no purpose.

The difference is today people are happy to pay up to double for gas and food items.

Just remember high prices mean you are "stickin' it to Putin". Pay with a smile, do it for Zeylynskyy.

I feel so much better now.😂

The (significantly) higher diesel prices today effect everything. Walking, biking or staying home won't change the fact that it now costs 2Xs the amount (in fuel costs) to deliver pretty much everything you use...

There is this complaint about drilling leases that the president is not releasing, and yet, the oil companies already have many they are not drilling. In fact, drilling is up in the last 15 months, however, it takes a while for new wells to come online. So, the lack of producing wells, if there is in fact is one, is a result of the time or policies prior to the last 15 months.

Also, we are not alone, oil (hence gas) prices are high all over the world. Hmm. Power change happened 15 months ago. In the last 15 months the oil companies have been reporting massive historic level profits. Hmmm...

just saying., fun to point fingers, but it is not always so easy to figure out what is really going on.

Don’t forget the Keystone pipeline that was stopped. It wouldn’t have affected us in this run of prices, but it certainly would help us in the future.

I have to ask, what is being gained by the US not having an all of the above gas policy? pumping a barrel of oil from Venezuela causes more pollution than one from the US. That is without even considering transporting it to here.

Well, yes, a little The part that was shut down was not complete. And the entire proposed pipeline would have have a very small effect on OUR oil needs, since the majority of that oil was/is destined to go to the Gulf of Mexico and from there be shipped over seas.

However, if/when leaks occurred in that pipeline, WE would be responsible for cleaning it up - and leaks DO occur in pipelines. Meanwhile Canada was only responsible for depositing the checks for shipping the dirtiest oil known across our land.

Well, the "drilling leases" line is easily debunked. A lease is not a "permit to drill". Those "permits" are being slow rolled. Many of the leases are on land with no oil. And... Once they do find oil, they have to pipe it off site. Oh, wait! No new pipeline permits!

How does that figure into your narrative?

And markets react to the future...

Then they should simply buy an EV. Problem solved!

And for those who need it...

https://c.tenor.com/DtZLhpsEu8wAAAAM...rcasm-sign.gif

There is more danger in shipping the oil by rail or truck...

$2.14 a gallon in January 2019 in Florida before Covid-19 became a household word

I support this comment 100%

Wait ! We got a big recall on batteries now for EV’s and plug in hybrids. Huge

Ok sorry if you happen to be an attorney specializing in plagiarism I stole that from Sherman T. Potter on MASH. That’s Colonel Potter to you:popcorn: