Average price of a gallon of gas in May 1976

[Beano's Fourth Chin]

60 cents

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

[BajaOklahoma]

It would have been less than that in OK though. It is always lower in OK than any other state.

[AlbqSooner]

Three of us left Tulsa headed for Wyoming in mid June '76. Filled up in Tulsa for 33 cents per gallon. Topped of in McPherson for 37 cents. Driving west on I-70 thru the night we started to see signs for Joe's (or whoever) Texaco, "Last chance at Kansas Prices" We topped off at Joe's for 39 cents. Few miles later when we entered Colorado, gas was at 32 cents. I don't think Joe got much repeat business.

Sorry Beano, but due to Joe, my memory is better than the site you found.

[VeeJay]

I remember them days.

I also remember in junior college in 1979, a professor telling our class that the Arabs wanted to see Americans paying a dollar a gallon by the end of the year.

Ah, to be butt raped in such a harmless fashion...

[BigRedJed]

http://commonsblog.org/archives/gasoline1.jpg


This figure plots the trend in the price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. from 1949 through the first quarter of 2006. This trend is displayed using three different measures: (a) nominal (or current) dollars, (b) real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) dollars, and (c) a ratio of the gasoline price to the per capita income. The last measure is an inverse proxy of the affordability of gasoline: inverse, because the lower this number, the more affordable the gasoline, and a proxy because it is an imperfect measure of affordability (more on this below). Each curve is normalized so that the price using any of the three measures is fixed at 65 cents per gallon (or $0.65 per gallon), which was the nominal price in 1978.

This figure shows that:

1. The nominal price of regular gasoline is higher now than at any time since 1949.

2. The "real" price during the first quarter of 2006 was at approximately the same level as it was in the early 1980s. Today (May 10, 2006), it is higher.

3. Relative to 1978, the price of regular gasoline has increased by 260 percent in nominal terms and 47 percent in real terms. However the price-to-income ratio has declined by 17 percent, i.e., it is more affordable today.

Moreover, what this figure does not show is that the absolute level of personal income per capita has gone up by a much greater amount than an average person's annual expenditure on gasoline. From 2003 to the first quarter of 2006, regular gasoline increased by 75 cents per gallon (in current/nominal dollars). This means an additional annual cost of less than $500 per capita, assuming that one drives 10,000 miles a year in a vehicle that gives, on average, 15 miles to the gallon. [The average miles per year is an overestimate, while the average gas mileage is an underestimate, hence the $500 is an overestimate by over 40 percent.] On the other hand over this period, average income per capita increased by $4,172 (also in current dollars). That is, 12 percent of the extra income went to feed one's vehicle, on average. But one's still better off to the tune of at least $3,672, even if one spent the entire increase, minus the extra cost of gasoline (and the inevitable taxes), on such pleasurable pursuits as blathering on the cell phone, buying an iPod, downloading iTunes, not to mention imbibing grandes at Starbucks and bottled water at prices vastly more inflated than those for gasoline.

http://commonsblog.org/archives/000666.php

[Sooner Born Sooner Bred]

my company celebrates 30 years this year. i sent an email that said "in 1976 a gallon of milk cost three times as much as a gallon of gas."

[BigRedJed]

Thank goodness cars didn't run on milk back then.

[skycat]

Thank goodness cars didn't run on milk back then.

Who's got investment capital for my milk powered automobile? I figure I'll start selling them in Wisconsin.

[Norm In Norman]

Thank god there haven't been any advances in technology since 1976 to make milk production and gas production cheaper. If there were such advances, it would be much harder to put things on such a level playing field.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Average price before the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 was around $0.25 per gallon, if my memory serves me right.

[Norm In Norman]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/gas_prices/14705335.htm

[skycat]

That dude's an idiot.

[Jerk]

That dude's an idiot.

At least he's action, and not talk- like the environmentalists who gripe about global warming, yet they won't sell their car and peddle around a bicycle everywhere they need to go.

I admire the gas station owner sticking by his principles...even though he is a friggin' idiot.

[Sooner24]

That dude's an idiot.


I just looked up idiot in the dictionary and his picture was in there. :D