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The chart you posted was of minimum wages. There is no way that the real price of gasoline was stable between 1972 and 1973. Similarly depending on what months in 1980 and 1981 were used the nominal price dropped between those years rather than rose. Ditto 1981 to 1982. The real price thus dropped more in the face of still somewhat stiff inflation.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I did an entire 2 month cross country road trip vacation in 1971, total 18,000 miles and 44 states for $500, gas and everything else. That was in a 1964 Buick Skylark Wagon getting about 12-14 mpg. The lowest I paid was in Minnesota at 25 cents, the highest was coming back into California where they had just added sales tax, at 36 cents. In 1973 I traded it in for a Pinto Squire Wagon, due mainly to the oil embargo and gas rationing, when gas went up to almost 50 cents and we had to wait in line at 5am to get it on our day (even or odd). At that time I was making $1.75/hour while in college, so worked about 20 minutes to pay for one gallon of gas. With the price of gas and my salary today I can get half a tank for what I make in that same 20 minutes working.
Personal anecdotes recalled from long, long ago do not amount to much of an argument on this or pretty much any other issue.
And of course,, gas prices tend to decline during episodes describable as "the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression." 1981-82 was one of those.
I did an entire 2 month cross country road trip vacation in 1971, total 18,000 miles and 44 states for $500, gas and everything else. That was in a 1964 Buick Skylark Wagon getting about 12-14 mpg. The lowest I paid was in Minnesota at 25 cents, the highest was coming back into California where they had just added sales tax, at 36 cents. In 1973 I traded it in for a Pinto Squire Wagon, due mainly to the oil embargo and gas rationing, when gas went up to almost 50 cents and we had to wait in line at 5am to get it on our day (even or odd). At that time I was making $1.75/hour while in college, so worked about 20 minutes to pay for one gallon of gas. With the price of gas and my salary today I can get half a tank for what I make in that same 20 minutes working.
20 minutes of work even with the increased gas mileage?
The current surge in gasoline prices, post-Harvey, would have turned into chaotic lines a la December 1973 - March 1974 and May-July 1979 if similar "Rube Goldberg" price controls were in effect. Available supply would have been badly misallocated, resulting in gluts or at least normal conditions in some areas and chaos in others.
From what i see.. Since we have better MPG, and stopping less, the gas stations are not selling gas as much. With us not stopping more, less taxes are being collected and of course less gas we consume. So only way to make up for the lose is jack up the price and keep it high. supply and demand is not in favor of gas anymore, as we have a huge gloat in the supply area and refinery. We can still sell gas below a dollar if we wanted too, but the speculators in the market is what thrives on the high price of the barrel. Keep the Barrels above 50 and the drilling companies will continue to drill, anything below 50 they stop or slow down. Call keeping things in check, dont over gloat it, but keep it short to were the need meets supply. I hate it as the next person does, but if you can keep the speculators out of the market, and let supply/demand rule it again, then we can see gas get below 2 dollars as it should be.
Still cant figure why it is still high with the huge gloat we got..
From what i see.. Since we have better MPG, and stopping less, the gas stations are not selling gas as much. With us not stopping more, less taxes are being collected and of course less gas we consume. So only way to make up for the lose is jack up the price and keep it high. supply and demand is not in favor of gas anymore, as we have a huge gloat in the supply area and refinery. We can still sell gas below a dollar if we wanted too, but the speculators in the market is what thrives on the high price of the barrel. Keep the Barrels above 50 and the drilling companies will continue to drill, anything below 50 they stop or slow down. Call keeping things in check, dont over gloat it, but keep it short to were the need meets supply. I hate it as the next person does, but if you can keep the speculators out of the market, and let supply/demand rule it again, then we can see gas get below 2 dollars as it should be.
Still cant figure why it is still high with the huge gloat we got..
Trouble is taxes in New York are about $0.62 per gallon, making gas below a dollar a pipe dream. When gas was $0.38 per gallon oil was around $2-$3 per 42 gallon barrel. Without "boutique gas" regulations creating multiple differentiated markets, gas could settle in many areas maybe between $1.80 and $2.10 a gallon.
Trouble is taxes in New York are about $0.62 per gallon, making gas below a dollar a pipe dream. When gas was $0.38 per gallon oil was around $2-$3 per 42 gallon barrel. Without "boutique gas" regulations creating multiple differentiated markets, gas could settle in many areas maybe between $1.80 and $2.10 a gallon.
True, so what can be done to keep speculators out of the market? Their goal is to cause panic and produce BS that cant stick to the toilet wall.. and yet people believe in it.
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