As much as people like to bitch about government regulations…I’ll bet that when gas hits these prices that they are glad the government mandated fuel economy standards for SUV’s. Imagine if they got the same mileage that they did in the 70’s.
And since the post just above this one was about inflation - when I got my first car in 1974, gas prices jumped to 75 cents a gallon. Here is what this is equivalent to these days. Back then we blamed the Arabs and OPEC, but today it’s Biden’s fault
BAck then I drove a two door coupe that got less than 20 mpg. Today I drive an SUV that gets 31 mpg. So gas as a percentage of my income is less today than it was back then.
Depends on what you purchase with that $$$ and our standard of living was lower in 1975 thus it’s actually like $6/gallon gas if you factor in inflation and improvement in standard of living. The cost of gas would need to rise 800-1100% to be the 1970s
If most of your purchases were food, housing, healthcare, and education, the inflation was higher than 433% aka 5.33 times greater. For those to spend less meant to buy more electronics
The bottom line is - everything (except housing. food and fuel) are included in the inflation numbers. Even though we were paying for housing, food and fuel every year since 1975. So while gas was only 75 cents a gallon, a person making $50,000 per year today would have been making just under $10,000 back then. The value of 75 cents back then in todays dollars is almost $4. When you factor in that cars back then got less than half the mpg than they do today, and you were filling up more often. We survived back then.
Interesting side note - Jimmy Carter vowed that we would not import a drop more oil that we did 1978. Instead, he offered up alternatives of coal, nuclear, natural gas…all the things that the right loves today, as well as wind and solar energy. Until we became self sufficient, he encouraged us to save by lowering our thermostats. Well…being a nation that would rather bitch, we mocked him for that, and when Reagan was elected, it was happy days are hear again for oil imports.