Gasoline today half the price of gasoline in the 80s when adjusted?

[BrendaStarr]

The owner of the news forum I'm with asked me to copy this here (so if you do happen to go there and see it posted by Fele that's why. He doesn't have an account here)

<olHave you heard the talking point that gasoline is half the price it would have been in the 1980s when adjusted for inflation?

So have I.

I've read it in conservative columnists posts and in personal stories on blogs, and in message board spam, over and over again.

Unfortunately the whole thing is a scam.

They are just hoping you don't check out the actual figures based on widely available non partisan sources.

First up I searched for average gasoline prices in 1984 being the middle of the Reagan era.

And found cheery nonpartisan 1980s Flashback-Economy& Prices ( http://www.1980sflashback.com/1984/Economy.asp ) which informs us that the average price of a gallon of regular gas was $1.21 which sounds about right.

Now lets go to the BLS (Federal Bureau of Labor Statics) and plug that into
their inflation calculator ( http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl ) and we get $2.23 per gallon which is about the same as the national average now. Very close to where the average spiked to in April 2005 (which was $2.25).

Good? NO. First of all the computers that sit on all our desks would have cost (I'm estimating) $25,000+ in 1984, but we got a break on technological advances. Oil extraction and gasoline refining have had similar advances. We should be reaping from them too.

Also, 1984 was before the Prudhoe Bay oil came in and we were promised lower prices for decades because of that, and we got it too, until shortly after Bush and a Republican dominated Congress came into office and Big Oil felt safe from federal investigation over oil and refinery product price fixing. A coincidence?

See here ( http://www.ghg.net/stuart/gasprice/gasprice.html ) where a "personal story guy" makes up a chart that shows a completely different story (except it does agree basically with the non partisan site on the actual average price of regular gas in 1984--Note that the guy is actually using the price of unleaded super, but one only needs to subtract $.20 from that price to get the price of regular).

You can see his evidence sheets, but our inflation evidence comes directly from the BLS CPI icalculator. Maybe the guy was using the inflation in CEO wages instead of the actual US government approved inflation rates. His little inflation facts page doesn't say.

Why do we see the same talking points from blog after blog, site afte site, message boarder after message boarder? Because it all is funneled out of Grover Norquist's weekly meeting with the Philanthropy Roundtable along with the money to pay right wing bloggers handsomely. The more they can get those lies out the better they are paid. (BTW, Karl Rove is a regular at those weekly meetings too.) (No that is not collaborating {spelling edit--Brenda} with the White House while the Republicans control the Congress.)

There's another problem too. What do they do with 1986 & 1987 when Regular Unleaded Gasoline prices plunged at one time to $.59/gallon and stayed under a dollar for a long time? Lets choose an average of 1.00 in 1986 Then using the BLS CPI Inflation calculator {again (link above)--edit-Brenda} we get and adjusted $1.75 much lower than we are seeing as a national average now.

They'd better stick with 1984.</ol>

[phantom power]

1. No, a bit over 2/3.

In 1981, the price of gas was $3.01/gal, in 2005 dollars.

[KlatooBNikto]

3. Let me get this straight.Gas prices contribute to inflation.So, as gas

prices go up now, they become cheaper in terms of their prices in 1980's.So, when we reach $5.00 a gallon gas and inflation goes out of sight, gas in terms of 80's will become cheaper and cheaper.I wish somebody would pay me what my paycheck is worth in 80's dollars.

[Blue Dog]

2. There are other factors making oil more expensive

"Good? NO. First of all the computers that sit on all our desks would have cost (I'm estimating) $25,000+ in 1984, but we got a break on technological advances. Oil extraction and gasoline refining have had similar advances. We should be reaping from them too."

The technological advances have been offset by the fact that we've already used up the "easy" oil. Now we have to extract "hard" oil from places like the western Gulf. Getting that oil's a lot harder than poking a hole in the ground in Texas.

[ComerPerro]

4. Yeah, its amazing how the RW Spin Machine works, isn't it?

And, even if what they said about gas in the 80s were true, I would just like to point out to right wingers:

Notice a pattern? Who is in office during these record high prices?

[Career Prole]

5. Well, I'd better factor in that I'm making half of what I made in the 80's

to get a more accurate view. :eyes:

[rogerashton]

6. This is mostly bullstuff.

The real gas crisis was in the seventies, and that was also the most inflationary period we have seen in this country in the 20th century. So "half what it would have been in the 1980's" is an exaggeration, but it is just silly to feel that there is something wrong because gas prices haven't fallen as fast as computer prices, or because Prudhoe Bay has already been pumped dry in the last 30 years. This would be far more persuasive it it showed some sense of proportion!

[LoZoccolo]

7. I would disagree with this part.

Good? NO. First of all the computers that sit on all our desks would have cost (I'm estimating) $25,000+ in 1984, but we got a break on technological advances. Oil extraction and gasoline refining have had similar advances. We should be reaping from them too.

Extraction is way way different than mass production in manufacturing a high-tech product. The more people use a high-tech product, the less it costs per unit because research and development is paid for; the market for computers is way way bigger than 1984.

Plus the price has gotten cheaper due to being able to choose countries for manufacturing which are cheapest. You can't choose which country to find oil in.

The computer industry is probably the most efficient in its advances out of any industry ever. Any other industry will be less efficient.

[tritsofme]

8. You can calculate back to 1976 if you wish

From this link:
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ap

Choose "Gasoline, Unleaded Regular"

And use this inflation calculator:
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ap

[Internut]

9. Here it is from 1978 to now:

Year  Price    Price in 2005 dollars
------------------- 
1978  0.631    1.85
1979  0.780    2.06
1980  1.242    2.89
1981  1.381    2.91
1982  1.210    2.40
1983  1.198    2.31
1984  1.211    2.23
1985  1.199    2.14
1986  0.895    1.58
1987  0.94     1.59
1988  0.946    1.54
1989  1.098    1.70
1990  1.096    1.61
1991  1.159    1.63
1992  1.143    1.56
1993  1.175    1.57
1994  1.128    1.46
1995  1.197    1.51
1996  1.305    1.59
1997  1.288    1.54
1998  1.106    1.31
1999  1.232    1.42
2000  1.561    1.74
2001  1.617    1.75
2002  1.493    1.59 
2003  1.704    1.77
2004  1.875    1.91
2005  2.325    2.325
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