Adjusted for inflation, the average price at the pump is right around where it has averaged over the past 85 years. And this is even with what I’m sure are much higher tax levels nowadays.
I am looking at a graph that shows the U.S. pump price average since 1918, all in “2001 dollars” (adjusted for inflation).
NUMBERS ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION: It was over $2 until around 1945, when it slowly slid to $1.60 in the early 1970’s. Then it shoots up to $2.70 or so in the early 1980’s (in the 1970’s, with the rationing of gas and all, the price was still right around $2).
From the late '80’s to 2001, it was in the $1.50 to $1.75 range.
Yes gas was 31 cents in 1959…and is over 6 times as much today. Guess what, the average consumer price index is up a little over 6 times since 1959.
What people are reacting to as “insane prices” are the big jump from the record lows of a few years ago. But these prices are about what people have been paying for most of the history of gas sales.
I’m paying $2 a gallon. About 65 cents of that is taxes. So for $1.35 oil is drilled, shipped, refined into gas, that is sent to a retailer, he marks it up a bit, and sells it for $1.35 plus tax. There are so many reasons for what the price is today (OPEC, demand, regional gas blend requirements, etc. etc.)…but the resulting price today is about what we’ve paid over the past 80+ years.
What I’d like to know is why I’m paying over $3 for a gallon of milk, which comes from a cow within an hour of me.