2 Real Prices of Gas

April 30, 2008 1:04 PM

(1) Price of gas adjusted for inflation (It has increased, but is not at an all time high (yet))
(2) Price of gas in terms of (mg) of Gold - (basically, it the price of gas now is what it was in 1998)
posted by yoyoceramic (31 comments total)

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
From a purely subjective point of view, I submit this anecdote: When I first entered the workforce at 16, I could flip burgers for an hour and use the money I earned to put fie gallons of gas in my tank. Nearly 20 years, a degree, and 10 years as a skilled professional in the graphic arts and printing industries later, and I can work an hour and use that money... to put five gallons of gas in my car.
posted by lekvar at 1:09 PM on April 30 [5 favorites]

Why does a graph marked 'Gasoline Prices 1918-2006' end at 2008?
posted by shakespeherian at 1:11 PM on April 30

what the hell kind of metric is gas/mg of gold?
posted by boo_radley at 1:15 PM on April 30

Nearly 20 years, a degree, and 10 years as a skilled professional in the graphic arts and printing industries later, and I can work an hour and use that money... to put five gallons of gas in my car.

My respected colleague, lekvar, ask for a raise.
posted by humannaire at 1:16 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]

From a purely subjective point of view, I submit this anecdote: When I first entered the workforce at 16, I could flip burgers for an hour and use the money I earned to put fie gallons of gas in my tank. Nearly 20 years, a degree, and 10 years as a skilled professional in the graphic arts and printing industries later, and I can work an hour and use that money... to put five gallons of gas in my car.

Burgers are valued less by society than they used to be.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:16 PM on April 30

The interesting thing is that as late as 1999, gas was still very cheap. In fact, that's the lowest point on the inflation-adjusted graph. So 8 years ago, lekvar probably could have put 15 gallons of gas in rather than five.
posted by smackfu at 1:19 PM on April 30

Does the real price of a gallon of gasoline as depicted in those two links take into account non-immediate cost? (ie: societal, environmental, et cetera)





I think not!
posted by Sam.Burdick at 1:21 PM on April 30

Eight years ago lekvar was a hobo.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:21 PM on April 30

Too bad the chart only goes through March. Hello $4.00 gas!
posted by Pollomacho at 1:24 PM on April 30

do I understand link number 2 correctly to mean that our gas would cost more gold if only our dollar weren't so miserably useless?

in other words, the price of gas - in dollars - is going up, but in comparison to gold it's going down because our dollar is worth so much less gold.

am I getting that about right?
posted by shmegegge at 1:28 PM on April 30

So the price of gasoline has increased along a similar curve to the price of gold.

Does this mean that we will be giving gas as an anniversary gift eventually? Maybe we can replace Sterling Silver on the 25th with 82 octane.
posted by quin at 1:28 PM on April 30

Yes but in Ron Paul Dollars the price of gas has gone down for 800 consecutive years in a row.
posted by Avenger at 1:29 PM on April 30 [4 favorites]

So it isn't that gas costs more - its that my dollar is worth less.

This is like that George Carlin joke that the cheetah doesn't really run fast. It just appears to run fast because everything around it runs so much slower.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:32 PM on April 30

Fuck all this Hybrid and EV noise.

Gimme a car that runs on gold bricks!
posted by BobFrapples at 1:32 PM on April 30

The reason for having gold vs petrol is that the problem with the price of oil is that it is quoted in US dollars.

This considerably distorts what has really happened as the metric of US dollars has changed so much. The USD is worth about half what it was in 1998 against the precursors to the Euro or the AUD or the GBP.

It doesn't help US residents but it does provide some perspective.

To fund expensive wars you have two choices, raise taxes or debase the currency. Bush has lowered taxes.
posted by sien at 1:33 PM on April 30

RonPaulFilter
posted by Mikey-San at 1:35 PM on April 30

Yes but in Ron Paul Dollars the price of gas has gone down for 800 consecutive years in a row.

I knew it! RON PAUL IS A FLESH-EATING UNDEAD ZOMBIE VAMPIRE! KILL HIM WITH FIRE!
posted by loquacious at 1:36 PM on April 30

Nearly 20 years, a degree, and 10 years as a skilled professional in the graphic arts and printing industries later, and I can work an hour and use that money... to put five gallons of gas in my car.

But amazingly, the prices of burgers and televisions and any number of consumer goods have fallen in that same timeframe, while quality (flat screens!) and ubiquity (Target! Wal-Mart!) have gone up dramatically. So we've gotten vastly more efficient at many, many things. Others, not so much. And while food prices have recently gone up, they're still way, way below what they were 20 years ago.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:37 PM on April 30

On the bright side, five gallons of gas in my car pretty much doubles the value.
posted by hal9k at 1:38 PM on April 30 [4 favorites]

It's cool that gold is back in the news now that it finally broke its previous all-time high set in 1980. If it were a stock that had taken 28 years to recover in nominal terms, it'd be getting laughed at.
posted by 0xFCAF at 1:40 PM on April 30

Also from that first chart: "Prices are average annual prices not peak prices." The average annual price for 2008 cannot be calculated until 2008 is over, so that "$3.08/gal" data point for 2008 is not comparable to the others.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:41 PM on April 30

Updates, you got to read the updates...

With average March prices at $3.22 Gasoline prices are above the average annual prices paid at the all time peak in 1981.

Nevermind.
posted by kgasmart at 1:42 PM on April 30

For God's sake what the hell is the point of the endless talk of using gold as money? Why don't we use ham or Legos instead? And this illustrates what, exactly? That gold is better than paper money? I can't by ham or Legos with gold, so that makes me think gold sucks as money. Why don't we just use oil as money?

And what if told you that gold has fallen by 15% since mid-March?

You could reproduce the second chart using corn or soybeans of fucking snodgrass if there was a market for it. That should tell you that the problem is currency related, not money related, and that it affects all dollar-traded commodities equally. Food shortage! Quickly sell oil and guy gold! Wheat! Seeds! Oil! Money! Arrrgh! Sound familiar?

Everybody chill. Gold is yesterdays news. Are you on tape delay? Get with the times. You pick up the newspaper today, and all you read about is potash. Potash is the tits. The world has gone bananas for potash. (That joke will make sense later.) "OH NOES the world is running out of potash!" cries the Wall Street Journal. Two years ago I couldn't play "potash" on a scrabble board because people thought I made it up. Now the Washington D.C. doyennes are talking to their financial advisers about it. "Why don't we have any potash in the portfolio?" they ask through a haze of Xanax and gin. "I would have thought we would have had some potash." Yeah, man. What, are you stupid?

Anybody know what potash is? Anybody? Bueller? It's fucking potassium. P-o-t-a-s-s-i-u-m.
It's not like it comprises 1.5% of the goddamn planet or anything.

So all you gold bugs, here's what I need you to do. You need to make me a chart that prices oil in gold relative to potash and gin. Plot that against the black market price of Xanax in in Georgetown, and give me an inflation adjusted chart made out of Legos. I've got a client meeting in an hour and there's no time for suicide.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:45 PM on April 30 [3 favorites]

The interesting thing to me isn't so much the price of gas, but the magnitude of the increase. The last six years have seen, but a huge margin, the biggest rise in gas prices in history.

Maybe we should elect a President with some experience in the oil industry to help put protections in place against this sort of... oh... wait. Nevermind.
posted by JWright at 1:46 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]

The reason for having gold vs petrol is that the problem with the price of oil is that it is quoted in US dollars.

This considerably distorts what has really happened as the metric of US dollars has changed so much. The USD is worth about half what it was in 1998 against the precursors to the Euro or the AUD or the GBP.

But the price of gold is also measured in USD in that chart, so all it shows is that the relationship between the relative value of these two commodities. You might as well chart the price of gas vs. the price of cheeseburgers over this period.
posted by googly at 1:46 PM on April 30

So it really is the decline of the dollar that makes gas so expensive. And there I thought it was peak oil.
posted by salvia at 1:46 PM on April 30

But amazingly, the prices of burgers and televisions and any number of consumer goods have fallen in that same timeframe...

This is true and certainly not to be overlooked. But it reminds me of last Christmas when I heard a politician expounding on how there wasn't really a problem with the economy, nobody could be really poor, because the Xboxes were cheap, available, and flying off the shelves.

Not a shot at you, CPB, just another anecdote.
posted by lekvar at 1:46 PM on April 30

there = here
posted by salvia at 1:46 PM on April 30

what the hell kind of metric is gas/mg of gold?

Yeah. What about gallons of gass in butterscoth, or fluffy bunnies?
posted by ShawnStruck at 1:47 PM on April 30

Anybody know what potash is? Anybody? Bueller? It's fucking potassium.

Right now??
posted by salvia at 1:48 PM on April 30

Right now??
posted by salvia at 4:48 PM on April 30

Yes, which reminds me that we're forgetting the most important metric of all - porn is free.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:50 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]