Gasoline is no more expensive than it was in 1080! Any holes in this argument?

[Selene]

OOPS - ^^^^Make that 1980 - other than my typo...

This site is entitled - Automobiles, Motorcycles & Libertarian Politics. It is a pretty cool site. http://epautos.com/2012/01/15/pssst-its-still-about-a-buck-a-gallon/

In the article below, the author basically takes the cost of a gallon of gas in 1981 and punches it into the inflation calculator and gets today's $3.43 price per gallon. He then continues with what appears to me to be an excellent argument.

I have to admit, I never thought of looking at today's gas price in these terms.

Pssst: It’s Still About a Buck a Gallon

The increase in gas prices is a mirage, a fiction. The commodity itself has not increased much in actual cost despite the passage of 32 years, despite the much-ballyhooed uptick in global demand and in spite of the alleged and endlessly imminent bogeyman of “peak oil.”

And so we come to the awakening.

Which means, we’ve been

scammed

.

Meanwhile, the false-flag “peak oil” story – and worries about imminent scarcity that seems to never actually arrive – are used to justify ever-more-onerous government regulations in the name of conserving that which we’ve got plenty of.

Fascinating approach.

Adam

[9thdoctor]

But setting the reference date at 1080 leads to potentially misleading results. Under Harold Godwinson the newer refineries were still being built, then, after the Conqueror, William Rufus had trouble with the Scots always sabotaging the pipelines. Reset the baseline to the reign of Alfred the Great and the desired hockey-stick shaped graph will emerge. Hide the decline!

[caroljane]

But setting the reference date at 1080 leads to potentially misleading results. Under Harold Godwinson the newer refineries were still being built, then, after the Conqueror, William Rufus had trouble with the Scots always sabotaging the pipelines. Reset the baseline to the reign of Alfred the Great and the desired hockey-stick shaped graph will emerge. Hide the decline!

Price comparisons are moot anyway, since Norman feudalism ended the good old free market of wergild and distorted the gold-based standard of individual life evaluation. It's been all downhill since then for true value trading.

[9thdoctor]

It's been all downhill since then for true value trading.

Nah, the Glorious Revolution was a definite turning point.

Anyway, Adam, you didn't provide a link to the website you referenced.

[Selene]

It's been all downhill since then for true value trading.

Nah, the Glorious Revolution was a definite turning point.

Anyway, Adam, you didn't provide a link to the website you referenced.

Well when I am going to make a fool of myself, I do a fine job!

http://epautos.com/2012/01/15/pssst-its-still-about-a-buck-a-gallon/

[9thdoctor]

Well when I am going to make a fool of myself, I do a fine job!

http://epautos.com/2...-buck-a-gallon/

Now don’t you start whining too! There’s a name for people who are too sensitive about the ins and outs, and/or the bump and grind of lively forum exchange.

Mr. Bond will share it with you:

[syrakusos]

One time, Mike Hoy of Loompanics and I were shooting hoops. Having recently bought a Roman denarius, I said that it would be cool to go back to Rome with a bag of silver coins. He asked me if I thought that money had more value then. I said, yes, because you buy a man's life for a handful of coins. He replied that no amount of money would buy a basketball; they were infinitely expensive.

This MacBook cost about as much in nominal dollars ($1000) as a TRS-80 with three drives and TRS-DOS did in 1980. Of course, these are much smaller dollars and the machine is much more powerful. Then, there are the cars...

[seymourblogger]

And I think you can take it back much further than 1980.

As I keep saying in my blogs: Gas is not going up. The dollar is going down.