$4.25 gal gas and $6.00 gal orange juice? really?

[briane]

Yep, we got a whole 2%!

yep I got a 3/5 % per year cost of living increase starting next month.

extra 1/2 gallon of milk a month - here we come!

[sepulchre]

My son just got back from Tennessee where said the gas prices were $1 cheaper than here in north central Indiana! Really? WTF?

[Structo]

Wow, good news! Our gas dropped from $4.25 to $4.19! Not only that but for the first time in 4 years we got a raise!! (on my bday no less) Yep, we got a whole 2%! Yeehaaw! I'm a goin to the bank . . . oh wait, outta gas.

Isn't it funny that we bitch about high gas prices when it is over $4.00/gal?

But if they drop the price to $3.90/gal we are, Woo Hoo gas went down!

It's called conditioning......

The price of regular gas that I remember when I was a kid was $.29.9/gallon.

Yep that is less than 30 cents a gallon.

I'm 56 so that does go back a ways but I know for a fact my income has not kept up with inflation.

[NickC]

^^^ I am 58. I also remember when gas was under 30 cents/gallon. I remember "gas wars" when stations on opposite corners would drop their price in competition. I bought gas for 25 cents/gallon due to that.

On the other hand, a 350ci V8 drank a lot of gas back then. I got maybe 10 miles-per-gallon. In any case, gas was a heck-of-a-lot cheaper back then. And the tax on it was a heck-of-a-lot less too.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I am 58. I also remember when gas was under 30 cents/gallon. I remember "gas wars" when stations on opposite corners would drop their price in competition. I bought gas for 25 cents/gallon due to that.

Gas stations were giving away premiums like glasses, steak knives, etc. besides.

OTOH as a youngster you'd be lucky to be making a buck and a quarter an hour if you could find a job at all late 60's. My father was a skilled carpenter and construction foreman at that time - he struggled to clear $200 a week including lots of unpaid overtime. When there was no construction work to be had, there was zero income. Not a penny in unemployment compensation. The only kids working in my high school were the ones caught with a little "alternate" smoking material. They were given jobs to "set them on the right track." I was tempted to go that route on purpose but decided I could do without an arrest/conviction record.

Nothing new about inflation. Knowing that it is a reality, you have to plan for it: invest wisely. And hope it doesn't come to hyperinflation. Post VietNam US inflation (10-20% per year) was nothing. My HS German teacher recounted her memories of the Danzig crisis of 1923: Friday afternoons you got paid with a paper sack crammed with paper money, overprinted with thousands, then millions, then billions of marks. Then you scurried down to the market and traded that sack of paper money for a sack of potatoes, and your family lived on that 'til next Friday. Since then I've kept a scanny eye on hyperinflation in Argentina, Brazil, Russia & Zimbabwe for instance. Hope such a thing doesn't ever happen here in the USA.

[NickC]

.............. hyperinflation ....... Hope such a thing doesn't ever happen here in the USA.

On the present course, it is inevitable. It may already be too late to avert the consequences.

[Leo_Gnardo]

.............. hyperinflation ....... Hope such a thing doesn't ever happen here in the USA.

On the present course, it is inevitable. It may already be too late to avert the consequences.

Lots of inflation being "swept under the rug" for several decades now. US Gov't "inflation index" is somewhere between a hoax and a cruel joke. I can see another bout of 10-20% if (heaven forbid) the USA war machine grinds to a halt as it did mid 70's. Because that's what happens when the party's over for the happy warriors and their industrial support. Let's hope we can avoid 1000%+ inflation that went on in early 90's Russia.

[Leka]

I just counted that one gallon here in Finland costs $8.55...

Damn.

[Leo_Gnardo]

one gallon here in Finland costs $8.55...Damn.

Yeh, I was going to remind my American friends, we're still getting off cheap, and we always have. (Only places you find cheaper gas is in producing countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Venezuela. Norway, which is a major oil producer, taxes gas heavily so prices are equivalent to Finland & other nearby countries. What do they do with all that tax money? Well Norway sure isn't any half-ass country that's looking for a handout. Although Finland's not so much known as an oil production country, I expect taxes keep gas prices high and the tax revenue keeps Finland running at a high standard. No second-rate country there either.)

There's also the matter of cost of transport. After the Hurricane Sandy debacle upstate NY locals were howling about 25 to 40 cent per gallon price boosts. At that time the NY-NJ area gas depots were shut down & recovering from storm damage, also waiting for the electricity to come back on. Gas had to be brought by barge from Philadelphia & Baltimore. That didn't happen for free. Turns out the price boost was enough to cover the extra costs and that's about it. Some gas stations were obviously gouging, and the ones that got caught have been assessed hefty fines. Tough business, selling retail gas. Almost as damn near impossible as dairy farming but that's a subject for another day.

[Aurora]

I can see another bout of 10-20% if (heaven forbid) the USA war machine grinds to a halt as it did mid 70's. Because that's what happens when the party's over for the happy warriors and their industrial support

Are you seriously suggesting to kee the war machine going just to keep US inflation down?

[NickC]

I can see another bout of 10-20% if (heaven forbid) the USA war machine grinds to a halt as it did mid 70's. Because that's what happens when the party's over for the happy warriors and their industrial support

Are you seriously suggesting to kee the war machine going just to keep US inflation down?

I think that was sarcasm; that's how I interpreted it. Lots of Americans are sick of the way our executive branch has propelled the war machine. Lots of Americans are sick of the way Pres. Clinton de-fanged our military, and spent the so-called "peace dividend". And lots of Americans disapprove of our military incursions into the middle east.

[Aurora]

I do hope you're right on this one..

OTOH - inflation is he flip side of market economy, since everything is based on a continious growth.......
( as in the fairy tale of Jack and his bean stalk....)

[NickC]

I do hope you're right on this one..

OTOH - inflation is he flip side of market economy, since everything is based on a continious growth.......
( as in the fairy tale of Jack and his bean stalk....)

Inflation is a perversion of markets, introduced into economies via government manipulation. The problem with all currencies is they are only backed by the full-faith of some government. Once the gold standard was abandoned, governments could manipulate the money supply with impunity inasmuch as the elite of government and industry can effectively insulate themselves from the consequences. The rank and file are left to suffer and pay for the folly and pilferage perpetrated by the privileged.

[Structo]

Exactly.

[Reeltarded]

I remember when Hi-Test was 24.9.

That's a quarter.