On Jul 15, 2006, at 2:22 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> Is the price of oil actually high? Gasoline prices certainly are not
> high. When I was 7 gasoline was 6 gals. a dollar. But my mother's
> annual
> pay as a rural elementary school teacher was $600. I think for many in
> 1937 gas at 16 cents a gal. was more expensive than gas at $3 a
> gal. is
> now.
I can't speak to 1937, but gas prices are very high if your history starts in 1950. I've got a chart of the number of minutes it would take a worker paid the average wage to earn the equivalent of the price of a gallon of gas, freshly updated at <http:// www.leftbusinessobserver.com/GasMinutes.jpg>. We're now roughly at the same level as the 1980 peak, and only slightly below early 1950s levels. Now it takes about 11 mins, and the 1950-2006 average is 7.8.
Doug