Gas prices
Michael Silence is looking at gas prices (which are high, if you haven’t noticed). I’ll defer to Kim du Toit on the issue:
Gasoline 1960 price: $0.30 per gallon; 2005 price: $2.50; % chg: +733%
Bread 1960 price: $0.19 per loaf; 2005 price: $1.89; % chg: +995%
It is a meaningless comparison to list gas prices as record highs in terms of dollars without considering the prices of other items.
August 16th, 2005 at 9:50 am
Still cheaper than milk. And bottled water, for that matter.
August 16th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
If I’m not mistaken, oil prices were higher in 1980 inflation-adjusted.
August 16th, 2005 at 1:02 pm
I think Manish is right. Oil was around $80 per barrel around that time…adjusted of course.
August 16th, 2005 at 2:10 pm
All the time hacked adjustments and comparasins in the world make no difference.
High gasoline prices come directly out of most peoples disposable income, reducing the power to consume in a consumer driven economy.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/050816/b081641.html
Next, our dependence on forign oil is a national security issue, not just from the terror funding standpoint, but from a standpoint of being able to feed and generally take care of our own, and defend our nation. We are strategically weakend by oil importation.
We have the ability to overcome all this. Technologies not already available can be devised and produced. It’s a matter of will.
But the recent energy bill did nothing to adress it. And republicans who lament a shortfall in refinery capacity aren’t exactly fighting hard to overcome environmental polices that prevent new refinery construction. Big oil is enjoying the runup, so let the good times roll. Meanwhile, the left, sits idle, smugly hugging trees while America is weakend globally by it’s dependence on forgein oil, and quitely high fiving each other over high gasoline prices.
August 16th, 2005 at 3:42 pm
Steve, do you think food and house payments don’t come out of our disposable income, too? (Maybe if you are a college student, in the military, or on welfare…) Inflation-adjusted gasoline prices are pretty close to average, and much lower than when they hit $1.00 a gallon in the 70’s. A few years ago, gas prices were really low if you think of it in terms of how many hours of minimum-wage work it takes to fill a tank or how many other goods you have to forgo. Now, they’ve just returned to about where they were 40 years ago before OPEC started screwing with the oil market.
OTOH, gas prices doubled in a short time. It is hard to adjust to that. It would be almost as hard to adjust to food prices suddenly doubling – but oil prices ripple through everything. But, as someone who graduated and went looking for a job in Michigan shortly after OPEC tripled the price of oil, I think I’m entitled to tell you to quit your whining.
August 16th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
Food and energy prices are more volitile, thats why we have a core rate of inflation measurement.
Energy prices directly influence food costs, trust me on this, I’m a professional cook.
And it matters not a rap that time adjusted prices are comparatively low, because volitile energy prices (being mainly volitile upward) severly damage the ability of the average consumer to consume, in an economy where consumption rules all.
In a nutshell we are vulnerable because our economy is based on consumerism and speculation, and relatively static energy prices. It’s not like this couldn’t be seen coming.
August 17th, 2005 at 6:18 pm
Isn’t a majoroity of the increase/hype due to lack of new refineries and transportation of oil from point A to point B? We are not “running out” of oil per se that would justify a price increase. By the way, have you noticed how much of the $$ you pay for a gallon of gas is state/federal/local tax? Lower that amount and you have cheap gas again.