The first few years I was driving (would have been around 1998-2000) gas was under a dollar per gallon (at least here in MI). The cheapest I remember paying (which the memory is still clear as day, standing there in aw starring at the sign in disbelief) was 86 cents... ahh the good old days.

 

Remember -- $1 for gas in 1979 is NOT the same as $1 for gas today. You have to adjust for inflation.

 

true.. inflation must be taken into account.. however, i don't fully understand inflation except that it is something folks throw around to explain why something costs more when there is no other apparent cause.. it sorta goes:

but even more to the point: inflation be damned, gas prices are sky high right now, and headed north still... and it IS NOT because of shortages.. it is because of loosely governed regulations and/or our markets being held hostage by either speculators, oil producing (foreign) countries, or politicians- and/or a collaborative effort of all the above..

I don't ever expect to see gas around a dollar ever again, but I do realize it COULD be sold for as low as $2 and still be profitable for all involved- fairly profitable, not 'rip your *** off because we can' profitable..

 

According tohttp://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm the 79' dollar had as much buying power as 3.19 of today's money... and that extra .80 making it 4/gal pays the overhead (gas station operating/transport costs, gov't fees n such).

The gas crisis in 79' is a very good parallel for the rape we're feeling at the pump today.

To put it in perspective, if gas were to fall to $1/gal tomorrow (fingers crossed) it would equate to gas being .31 cents in 79'.

 

And the oil companies just posted another round of record profits.

 

And the futures traders/speculators keep profiting even more. Some Arab gets a leg cramp and the idiot speculators "panic", claiming supplies could tighten and cause the price to go up.

Then, let's not forget the idiotic Government policies selling off debt and just flooding the money supply, thus lowering the value of the dollar. A lower value in the dollar means it takes more dollars to buy tomorrow what we were buying yesterday, hence a higher price for oil.

Gold and oil are two hedges the speculators are using to protect themselves from inflation. It will be damn funny when the gold market crashes like it did back in 1982(?)

 

Gas down here is almost the same price as when I started paying for my own gas, Yea it would be nice for it to go back down but I look at it this way Im still going to buy just as much gas either way

 

Yeah, but, what would you rather do.... Pay over 100 bucks to fill your tank? Or, closer to 50?

 

The more debt is used to fuel the economy, the more things cost because interest and other loan fees must be calculated into the prices of things.
When the federal reserve makes money appear out of thin air, it reduces the value of all dollars in circulation by dilution -- there's one pie, so when you slice it to make more pieces, each piece must be smaller. During times of scarcity (or just artificially inflated prices) of vital resources, the cost of everything dependent upon the higher priced resources goes up.

Most inflation today is due to debt and the corresponding increase in the money supply. The upstream source is the Federal Reserve -- they can and do make money out of thin air. So when you go for a mortgage or a car loan, or crank up the balance on your credit card, you're contributing to inflation because you're borrowing that magic money from a creditor who borrowed it from the Fed, who created it out of thin air. When your large company employer pays operating expenses and payroll with credit, your employer is contributing to inflation. The bulk of the money supply today doesn't even exist as currency; it's just database records in computers. Magic money (and inflation) that can never be held in your hand created with a few keystrokes.

It's obviously enough an unsustainable, expand-or-expire phenomenon, but the Fed continues playing the game because that magic money actually becomes real once it's made. You'll work (trade hours of your life) to get it, you'll produce products that others will pay for in it, and so on. And the Fed gets it all back in the end, with interest, and it's real enough to buy mansions, yachts, jets, caviar, gold, country clubs, and all of the other trappings of wealth.

This is what we get for trusting bankers and lusting for wealth that can only come from them because it's measured in something only they can produce. Gawd but we're a stoopud lot.

 

Ha i work at a sunoco oil refinery in philly belive me theres no fing shortage the ships are coming in every day and filling those tanks oh and just to let you know the ceo of sunoco just bought a 5.8 million dollar house after she laid about 45 people off