[NoMo50]

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.

[Jimmay]

Originally Posted by charlie1

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.

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

[MandoMan]

Originally Posted by MartinSE

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.

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.

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by Love2Swim

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.

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

[The Chipster]

Originally Posted by thevillages2013

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

Horse puckey? Really?

[toeser]

Originally Posted by charlie1

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.

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.

[OhioBuckeye]

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?

[Regorp]

Originally Posted by charlie1

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.

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!!

[PJackpot]

Originally Posted by charlie1

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.

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".

[airstreamingypsy]

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.

[Geodyssey]

Originally Posted by thevillages2013

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

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.

[irishwonone]

Originally Posted by charlie1

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.

I feel so much better now.😂

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by airstreamingypsy

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 (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...

[MartinSE]

Originally Posted by Taurus510

If a president can control, (through regulation, etc), the shipping, drilling, storing, refining, buying, selling, trading and taxing of oil, then he is setting gas prices.

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.

[Taurus510]

Originally Posted by MartinSE

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.