I see posts all the time on Facebook showing how expensive gas is.

[doc03]

Yesterday there was a picture from 1960 showing gas was 30.9 cents a gallon. I was curious what that would be in today's.
dollars. According to the Dept. of Labor inflation calculator 31 cents in 1960 is equal to $3.26 today. Today gas is $2.74
locally and another thing they don't consider is we get 2 to 3 times more milage out of gallon today. At $5.00 a gallon it is a bargain if you consider inflation and the efficiency of today's cars.

[Sympthsical]

1. Gas has been running about 75 cents cheaper in California lately

Than it has been all year.

No one say anything. Maybe no one will notice.

[onecaliberal]

2. Pretty much only in California is gas 5.00 a gallon actually,

couple that with the cost of living and yearh, NOT affordable.

[LiberalFighter]

9. What was the cost of gas in 1960 for California?

[onecaliberal]

13. 32.9 cents.

As your post says, add in the cost of greedflation and there you have it. The tax and special blend here does not account for the above average costs here year around. Oh yeah, the oil companies made record profits again.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Gas is under $3.00/gallon

here in Santa Fe.

And yes, if you want to hark back to prices from decades ago, you really need to consider inflation.

[demosincebirth]

11. Here in the Oakland area, major brands sell a $5.00 +,

Where other brands sell for up to 75 cents cheaper. We also have 5 major refineries within 40 miles talk about ripping consumers off😪

[plcdude]

4. Excellent

Point this should be spread around and by this I mean placing issues in context.

[doc03]

5. Back in the last century when I was a

teenager we would have to pool all of our change to buy a gallon of gas. We work putting in hay for a farmer for 50 cents an hour, it was big deal for me when I got a job at Holiday Inn as a buss boy getting $1.25 cents an hour. So much for those good old days.

[Walleye]

7. My first job was $1.25 an hour as well

[Johnny2X2X]

6. Negativity sells

Even here on DU, a lot of posters are oblivious to how low energy prices have fallen. Going into last Winter there were andless threads on energy coasts to heat homes and how it was going to be a huge burden. Well this year, energy prices are way down and there's no threads on that fact. Food prices are way down too, very few threads about it.

Same with crime. Crime is way down in 2023, especially property crime. But all we ever see is videos of petty crime on social media. Crime was several times higher in the 80s and 90s, across the board, but video cameras weren't in every store and every pocket to publish every robbery to the world.

[Walleye]

8. I use the candy bar rule, a candy bar cost 10 times what it did when I was in school. So does everything else

[niyad]

10. Gas is 2.45 at a station near me.

[Liberal In Texas]

12. Last time I had to put gas in the wife's car it was around $2.85 here in North Texas. n/t

[MissB]

14. Gas here in PDX metro

Is still hovering above $4.50/gal, closer to $5 for premium.

[Initech]

17. They also don't understand how state taxes work either.

[Warpy]

15. Dumbasses don't understand inflation

and fiat currency has a 2%-4% inflation rate built right into it..

In 1967, I could rent a one bedroom apartment down south, eat, see a doc when I got sick (which was rare at that age) and have a little left over since I wasn't a drinker or smoker. Shoot, it would stretch to an occasional ounce of grass.

That was at the princely wage of $1.27/hour, two cents above the minimum.

These days, minimum wage won't do much of any of that, the homeless shelters full of people going out to work for minimum wage every day in a lot of states, red states, uncaring states, fiscally stupid states.

Wages are always a lagging indicator, meanint they only go up when inflation has already happened. They are not inflationary.

Republicans will deny this to their dying breaths, may those be soon. They and "fiscal conservative" DINOs have blighted my entire adult life. They all need to join McCarthy and lumber off to the elephant graveyard.

We'll never see 31 cent gas or two cent iceberg lettuce again. I hope we do see living wages. America needs a raise, a big one. Fat cat executives and their overlords need a diet.

[flashman13]

16. In the summer of 1966 I went to work for my father in his union

electrical contracting shop for $2.75/hr (union wage). The inflation calculator says that is now equal to $26.44. By the end of that summer I could afford to buy a motorcycle. As I remember high test gas was $.32 and my car got about 12mi/gal. It was a wonderful time to be a teenager.

[doc03]

18. The point of the post if you consider inflation and the efficiency of todays cars

gas is cheaper now. Gas in 1960 was 31cents, today that comes to $3.26 and cars then got 12 MPG. I filled up today
for $2.64 and my car gets more than twice as many MPG. So effectively it cost me less than $1.32 a gallon if you figure inflation
and MPG. I started working in a steel mill making $18 a day in 1970 and retired 13 years ago at $200 a day. So those good old days were not as good as we think.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. Mileage matters a lot.

My entire life, starting with my first car in 1967, I've always owned very fuel-efficient cars. VW Beetles, then various Subarus and Hondas. I have NEVER understood the mindset of buying some large SUV or any car that gets crappy mileage. And periodically I'll read stories that say when the price of gas goes down a bit people enthusiastically buy gas gobbling cars. Why? Why would anyone want a car that wastes gas?

Maybe it's because I have been relatively poor at several times in my life, and always want to save money. Heck, these days I live alone and I'm as economical as I can possibly be with food. I cook and freeze meals, and when I do that the per meal cost is invariably two dollars each or even less.

The Monday before Thanksgiving I had a ham, ate it for two days, then cut up and froze the rest of it. So far I've made scalloped ham and potatoes twice, as well as ham and bean soup from which I froze about seven portions. The original ham cost me $17.00, and I've already had about ten meals from it. I'll be getting a lot more in coming weeks. Had Thanksgiving with friends, who sent me home with some leftover turkey. I made a turkey noodle soup a few days ago, and have three portions in the freezer.

[doc03]

20. I had a 1974 VW, I loved to drive the car but as I remember even they didn't get much over 20MPG.

Another car I loved to drive was a 1961 Chevy Corvair and it only got a little over 20 MPG. In 1977 I bought a Chevy Blazer, that was a mistake 8 MPG and to top it off a lemon. I ordered it and after waiting like 2 months for it I hated it before I got home. I have always owned smaller vehicles with the exception of that Chevy Blazer. Today I have a Honda CRV that gets 30 MPG
average and 34 MPG on the highway about four times what that Chevy Blazer got. Like I said earlier when we were teenagers
we would have to pool our change to come up with 30 cents to buy a gallon of gas. So much for those so-called good old
days the MAGAs long for.