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Old Posted May 9, 2014, 2:33 PM
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freeweed freeweed is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Dynamic City, Alberta
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Symz View Post
I always find it funny how much people obsess over the price of gas. I don't pay much attention to it, it's something I HAVE to buy. With my focus the price difference on a full tank of gas between a gas price being high (1.35 say) or low (1.16) is about $5 on a full tank. Not worth me really obsessing over.
Same here. It's basically like housewives of a couple generations ago, chirping about how a can of peas is 10 cents cheaper over at the store on the other side of town. The only reason people do it is that gasoline is basically the only product we buy where the price is displayed loudly, everywhere, at all times. So it's obvious when the price changes, etc.

The prices of a lot of things change constantly, but people don't have threads and news stories every week because carrots are up 2%. But with gas? People start talking about changing their routines because of a 5 cent difference, which on a reasonable fill is a whopping 2 bucks. And these are the same people that don't blink about spending that 2 bucks on a cup of coffee at Tim's, that is essentially free at home if they'd spend the 20 seconds. But there's no price signs everywhere for coffee.

I just discovered some old Visa receipts my father kept as a result of a cross-country trip back in July 1983. Gas at the time was around 40 cents in Alberta, 50 cents in Ontario, with a mix everywhere else. So give or take, gasoline is now 3x higher than it was - 31 years ago. Seems to be in line with the price of cars and car insurance (if not less of an increase than those). I won't even mention housing. I know for sure that my utility bills are much more than 3x what my parents paid back then.

I've got scans of catalogs from the 1980s (I'm weird) and pretty much everything I look at that's not a) electronics or b) shit we get cheap from China follows a similar pattern. Clothing is.. eerily similar in price. Holy crap did sending that stuff overseas save us a bundle. No wonder I had hand-me-downs as a middle class kid, yet today half the kids shop at Coach. Electronics are ridiculously cheaper, obviously. But - brand-new, hot toy of the year Star Wars action figures? 3 for $8 in 1983. Those things are about $8-10 each in stores today. So even with Chinese manufacture, they're about 3x as expensive. A boardgame like Candyland? $4.99. Today at Toys r Us? $10-15 depending on version. So a 2-3x increase. Even for some electronics... $100-150 for the current consoles in 1983. Today a PS4 costs $400. 3x increase, easily. Luggage is another thing that is bizarrely expensive today - a $50 high end bag back then is $2-300 today.

I just don't see gasoline being that out of line compared to.. well anything other than a Commodore 64 or a Casio wristwatch. Seems like a ton of stuff costs 3x what it did, 30 years ago. But holy crap are clothes cheap these days.
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