Gary Fluke wrote:
> Fellow motorists,
>
> Don't worry too much about the current price of fuel. For all of the talking,
> shouting, screaming and politicizing about the price of gasoline, please
> consider this in context. I'm going to compare the price
> of gasoline today to the price in 1958, when gasoline was considered to be so
> cheap that Americans could afford to drive heavy, flashy cars with little
> consideration of fuel economy.
>
> The average annual wage in 1958 was $3,674 and the average price of gasoline
> was $0.284 per gallon. The current average annual wage of about $40,000 is
> about eleven times that of 1958. Eleven times $0.284 is $3.124, which is very
> close to the price of a gallon of regular gasoline here in Washington State
> where the price of gasoline is high.
>
>
>
This makes some uneconomic assumptions. In fact, a better indicator
would be the actual rate of inflation, which, from 1958 to 2006 is a
factor of 6.92. Other sources show an average cost of gasoline of
$0.24/gal. in 1958, but, in oil-producing regions of the country, the
cost was much less than 24 cents a gallon, so, perhaps it averages out
to 24 cents. If so, a gallon of gasoline, using the actual rate of
inflation as a multiplier, should be $1.66.
These assumptions also use average wages, which are not representative
of most wage earners, since averages are skewed by large incomes at the
top of the income scale--a much greater bias today than in 1958, since
the top 1% of earners today garner about 22% of total income, whereas in
1958, this figure was closer to 13%. The top 0.1% today have about 7%
of total income, whereas in 1958, the figure was about 2.3%.
Statistically, median family and individual incomes would be a better
indicator. Let's also remember that for the bottom 30% or so of wage
earners, their income hasn't kept up with inflation since the early
`70s, so transportation fuel costs for that segment of the population
are a considerably greater share of take-home income than for those in
the upper half of the income distribution.
Cheers.
--
Michael Porter
Roswell, NM
Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance....
_______________________________________________
Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
6pack@autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/6pack
http://www.team.net/archive
|