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?
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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.