Gas was more expensive in 1918, adjusted for inflation |
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The website Inflationdata compiles some hmm-inspiring historical charts that show inflation adjusted pricing. For example, the Gasoline Inflation Rate Chart shows us that despite current $4.20+ gallon pricing locally, the average annual price of has been higher at another time in US History.
way back in 1918 when Gasoline was a luxury item and people still rode horses as their means of transportation… gasoline in inflation adjusted terms was about $3.50 a gallon
While grimacing at the price of the pumps, you might be wondering how this could be. By following the article linked, you’ll see that the annual price of gas takes into account peaks and valleys in the price and is across the entire country. While some areas are seeing well over $4/gal pricing, there are still some areas where gas is at or below $4/gallon. And if we go back to January the price was a $1 or so less per gallon which brings down the average.
So the next time you hear some news guy talk about "gas prices are at an all time high" he isn’t factually correct. Yet. I’m sure by the end of this year that statement will ring true. You can be safe in the knowledge that during horse and buggy times, again adjusted for inflation, it was actually more expensive to fill up than it was at the time this post was written some 90 years later.
Disturbing nonetheless realizing that in 1976 gas cost $0.76/gal and didn’t cross the $1/gal mark until 1980.
I paid $3.92 for regular yesterday here in Florida.
Gasoline may have been a luxury item for auto owners in 1918, but of course gas purchases would have been a much smaller percentage of a car-owning family’s expenses then.
No one was making hour-long commutes at 80 miles an hour in an SUV, and the average mileage accrued in a year by the family car would be minuscule compared to the average now.
The article you pointed to said, “We need to be cautious because the economy could be in danger from high energy prices.”
I think out-of-control deficit spending by the federal government is more of a threat to our economy than higher energy prices– which actually reflect a truer valuation to the costs for society of fossil fuels when factors like environmental degradation and respiratory disease rates are accounted for.
The higher prices for their heavily-taxed fuels that European have historically ‘enjoyed’ are far more realistic than the lower ones that spoiled U.S. drivers and our shortsighted auto-making industry (both of whom learned nothing from the fuel crunch of the ’70s), have taken for granted for so long.
We need to face the fact that the party is over, and that if the economies of China, Russia and India continue to expand, further driving up demand, prices likely will keep going up, no matter what the fed does.
[I know that Russia holds major petroleum reserves, but the law of supply and demand applies to its economy as well.]
Comment by Vince Williams — June 8, 2008 @ 12:14 pm PST
Here’s an interesting take on the subject.
Comment by Vince Williams — June 10, 2008 @ 5:21 am PST
That is interesting, thanks for sharing, Vince.
Comment by TDavid — June 10, 2008 @ 9:29 am PST
Pretty much everything was more expensive back then. The fact that with still 24 hours in each day, we can own so much more stuff than people did in 1918 is testament to this truth. We are basically living as spoiled brats. Someday, the party might have to end. That day might be fast approaching, or it might not, but it probably will have to end. Until then, instead of feeling entitled to all this waste we generate, we should feel blessed that we are so lucky to have been born in this particular moment of history when everything has been so plentiful.
Comment by David Leonhardt — June 13, 2008 @ 7:14 am PST