[seasoned traditionalist]

Next time you stop at the pump and pay trough-the-stratosphere prices

BS. Gas prices are high, but nothing compared to what they were in the 70s.

Really? I don't know how old you are, but I can remember "vividly" the jump in prices (DOUBLING) in the early 70's (as I had just got out of an 8 year enlistment in AF) and had started working in the Insurance Business, which I ended up getting out of because gas prices were killing me.

I also remember paying as little as 18 cents a gallon when I started driving in 1959.

Okay, I know what you (and others) will suggest as to the value of a dollar today, in 1970's terms.

Thus, read on McDuff!!!

http://www.1970sflashback.com/1976/Economy.asp

Category

Economy / Prices

1976 Economy / Prices

Economy

President: Gerald R. Ford

Vice President: Nelson A. Rockefeller

Population: 218,035,164

Life expectancy: 72.9 years

Federal spending: $371.79 billion

Federal debt: $629.0 billion

Inflation: 8.7%

Consumer Price Index: 56.9 Unemployment: 8.5%

Prices

Cost of a new home: $48,000.00

Median Household Income: $12,686.00

Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.13

Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $0.59

Cost of a dozen eggs: $0.84

Cost of a gallon of Milk: $1.65

Allowance for inflation

The allowance of $0.59 you received in 1976 would be worth $1.99 today.

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/allowance/allowance_101.html?step=calced&templName=allowance.html&resultsmode=3&allowance=.59&year=1976

Thus, I don't know WHERE you are buying your gas, but please let us ALL know as there are a few of us out here, who are paying just a mite over $1.99 a gallon.

[oh8eleven]

The allowance of $0.59 you received in 1976 would be worth $1.99 today.
And at $3/gal today that's a 33% increase. A 33% increase in the price you supplied would put gas at about $0.79.
I remember it being a lot more than that. Of course I was paying NY State taxes too.

[The_Victor]

The allowance of $0.59 you received in 1976 would be worth $1.99 today.

The only way these numbers work out is by assuming an average inflation rate of 4.14% from '76 to '06, compounded annually.

A quick look at your own post give the inflation in '76 at 8.7%. Inflation during the Carter presidency was double digit, and even during the Reagan administration generally exceeded 5%.

With an average inflation rate of just 6% the price of gasoline would be $3.39.

[raybbr]

According to this chart gas would be about $1.70 in today's dollars.