Gas price adjusted for inflation

[widgeon13]

http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.html

I was looking for historical information on gas prices and came across this graph. If I interpret it correctly, it appears that prices are about equal to inflation adjusted prices from the early 80's. Does that make sense to the analytical folks in the group? If that is correct, we are really no worse off than we were back then, it just seems that much more painful.

Apologies for not posting the complete graph but I didn't know how to do that. I'm sure there will be some rants in the offing but I am interested in some constructive feedback other than it's Dubya's fault.

[jyl]

The inflation-adjusted price of gasoline is about where it was during the oil shocks of the 1970s. Which was not exactly a pleasant period, economically speaking. The longest recessions of the post war years.

[red-beard]

[hardflex]

here's another chart which is longer term, and I updated it to reflect current prices (the red circle) . It appears that adjusted for inflation, gasoline prices are higher than they've been almost since the car was invented.

4 Airlines hit the deck in 2 weeks. I heard an analyst this morning say they are all going down, just a matter of when. They use too much fuel at $100 per barrel to survive.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I have a bad feeling that the recession we're on the brink of will make the recessions of the 1970s look tame.

I hate to be a doomsday prophet, but the overall prospects for our economy don't look particularly good. There's very little to dance and sing about these days when you look at the fundamental underpinnings of our economy.

I think the coming recession will be more like 1929 than like 1975.

I really hope I'm wrong, but unfortunately I'm usually right when it comes to these things.

[The Gaijin]

We use half the oil per dollar of GDP then we did back then. Burn a few Mcmansions and scrap a few SUVs and that would keep going down.

Also, by that chart - the highest gas prices were in the early '80s. It was all Ronald Reagan's fault!


We shall see.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Even though buyers love our fall collection, orders are down over 100%...and that goes for the long-established names out there as well.

[Aurel]

The recession we are entering in is the direct consequence of short-sighted idiotic policies form the governement, and short-sighted idiotic greed from the public.

Everybody should know that an economy based on oil cannot survive with high oil prices. To prepare for the future, it would have been smart to use the money spent on idiotic war in Iraq on other items such as:
- Developing a high-speed railroad network for transporting goods and people.
- Developing more nuclear plants to produce electricity.
- Investing heavily in research on alternative energies.

Everybody also should know that the value of houses cannot keep doubling evey five years, and that a 3% interest loan cannot stay at 3% forever.

Go figure, it is Darwin law at work on a large scale.

Aurel

[Jim Richards]

Yep.

[speeder]

The party is over, and it's crashing down fast. Something like 27% of Americans, (and ~0% of the rest of the world), approves of the job that Bush has done as president. Quite a few of the 27%ers seem to be here on this board, all with weird explanations of how everything that is happening would have happened no matter who was in charge; the mismanaged/bungled war based on false intelligence, the record-breaking deficits that are sinking the U.S. dollar against all other currencies, tax breaks for anyone who owns any type of business to buy a Hummer, etc., etc...

We are living through some history, folks. And the decline might be the fastest ever, when you consider the U.S. economy and our place in the world 10 years ago compared to today. It's absolutely tragic and stunning. Everyone but the very rich are going to see their lifestyle, savings and their future severely curtailed. OBL won the chess game w/ the idiot.

[DaveE]

I wouldn't give all the credit to OBL. We're the ones who put the idiot into office, twice.

[Rearden]

Bush Lied. People Died. And Gas Prices Went Up.

[mgatepi]

Obl ????

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by Rearden

Bush Lied. People Died. And Gas Prices Went Up.

It's good to see that you finally get it.

[Sonic dB]

Al Quaeda would rather have our economic system collapse, then take a huge body toll at this point. It has been said that this is Bin Laden's primary objective now.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by Aurel

The recession we are entering in is the direct consequence of short-sighted idiotic policies form the governement, and short-sighted idiotic greed from the public.

Everybody should know that an economy based on oil cannot survive with high oil prices. To prepare for the future, it would have been smart to use the money spent on idiotic war in Iraq on other items such as:
- Developing a high-speed railroad network for transporting goods and people.
- Developing more nuclear plants to produce electricity.
- Investing heavily in research on alternative energies.

Everybody also should know that the value of houses cannot keep doubling evey five years, and that a 3% interest loan cannot stay at 3% forever.

Go figure, it is Darwin law at work on a large scale.

Aurel

Agreed completely.

The problem is that 80% of the people out there are either too stupid or too unsophisticated/uneducated to realize this and that the remaining 20% realize it and say "screw it, I know it's not sustainable, but I'm going to try and make my $$$ while I can because there might not be a chance later".

[The Gaijin]

Frankly - I only agree a little bit.

- It is a big country. Denver to Albuquerque or Salt Lake City by high speed rail makes no sense. Transporting basic goods at high speeds is silly too.
- More nuclear power is a good idea - but once long distance transmission is figured out - and they are not built in popluation centers there will be less resistance. A lost opportunity over the last 30 years..
- As for "alternative energies" - forget Iraq for a moment - think of the supidity of ethanol, solar and wind power. Feel good technologies propped up by tax credits and lobbys. They have little long term potential and have been a short term diversion.

The reality is basic conservation and some kind of restrained lifestyle would go a long way. McMansions in across the North American continent cooled to 65 degress all summer without a shade tree in sight is just wastefull and idiotic. Much less the Pick-Up/SUV boom.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Start by doing the logical thing - connect "hub" or major cities. A high-speed rail NYC to LA would be a good start. Our Amtrak rail system is a joke by global standards. The only thing that we have that even resembles good rail service is on the DC/NY/Boston corridor (Acela train) and that's pitifully slow by international standards. The technology exists today to build a 300 mph train. That's 10 hours coast-to-coast (2,982 miles from Union Station L.A. to Boston's South Station). Assume a couple of hours' worth of stops along the way (Denver, Chicago, NYC) and make it an even 12. Not quite air travel, but close. One day trip. Pretty much what a smart traveler allots for getting there by air now, especially factoring in all the additional TSA bull***** and a connection (or two) in there for most routes, etc. AND you could launch one of these things every half-hour if need be.

Why aren't we doing this? Is there REALLY no market for it?

I mean, nobody wants to ride coast-to-coast on Amtrak because it'll take you the better part of a week and be stopping every 45 minutes in half the podunk towns in America. If you seriously had a dedicated high-speed line with only quick-turns in major cities, you'd have a very viable transportation system that would ease a lot of congestion at airports, etc. Not to mention the maglev technology uses ELECTRIC power (not fossil fuel) which could be powered by nuclear, solar, whatever. You'd be substituting one or two of these power plants for how many hundreds of millions of gallons of Jet-A a year?

I think the time might be here (or will be shortly) to dust off these ideas and start giving them some serious consideration again. A few years ago it was simpler/easier to just say "aww, screw it - we can just keep going on with 'more of the same old' and we'll be fine", but as oil starts approaching $125, $150, $175 or $200 a barrel, maybe not so much.

[s_wilwerding]

Anyone who talks about building a train network across the country, or even over several miles, has no idea of the costs involved. I'm in the industry, and it costs a minimum of a million dollars per mile to buy up land and lay track, and that's if you're doing it in the middle of nowhere. Once you get near cities, the price goes up almost exponentially.

I think the best plan for the future is electric cars. While I don't know yet how much promise solar and wind energy can deliver on, building nuclear power plants could get us a long way towards an "electric economy", and I guarantee building some electric plants would be much cheaper than building a rail system across the country.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by s_wilwerding

Anyone who talks about building a train network across the country, or even over several miles, has no idea of the costs involved.

Uh, didn't P-O-P grow up in Boston? Home of the Big Dig? $1 mil per mile is chump change, where he's from.