Would you like cheap gasoline/petrol to return?

[AviatorTom]

1957 gas pump

The picture shows a gasoline/petrol pump in 1957, costing just 28 cents a gallon.

Would you like cheap gas like this to return?

Why or why not?

Updates

+1 y

Just a thought...

If gas was much cheaper, you'd see a lot more vehicles on the road making a lot more trips. Traffic would be much worse than it already is. Would people really like that?

[lightbulb27]

lower yes, so it lowers inflation and stops wiping people out financially, and the government (us) financially, and causing more crime... since more people are broke.

But wishing is not a plan and the people just voted for high prices if not higher prices. Thus... most people love high price oil to help push us towards high price electric... to save the planet. They love not having milk in the store (due to less shipments per Trader Joes stocker), and $6/doz/eggs, and they want amazon prime to go up too. They love it!

So I enjoy the high prices and enjoy listening to people complain about their problems. Like a therapist I enjoy asking them, "so tell me about your problems"... lol. As long as they are republican they can complain, democrats are not allowed to complain.

[WindAtMyBack]

Adjusting for inflation, that's pretty close to the current price.

I remember gas prices lower than that though. I also remember gas crossing a dollar for the first time because I was traveling at the time. That happened in early 1979 when I was on my way to Florida. Adjusted for inflation, that's more expensive than it is today.

People got spoiled by recent low prices. The current price isn't high. It's well within the normal range.

[WindAtMyBack]

I said I remember cheaper gas. I remember it being under 20 cents. I think I remember it as low as 17 cents, maybe even 15 cents on rare occasions. I was just talking to my brother and he remembers the same thing. Even when I started driving it was in the 30s.

"If gas was much cheaper, you'd see a lot more vehicles on the road making a lot more trips. Traffic would be much worse than it already is. Would people really like that? "

During the "energy crisis" in the 70s, there was a trend to buy cars with better fuel economy. Fake diesels also got semi-popular. But after a while, people got used to the prices and went back to their old habits. They started buying bigger cars again, like SUVs, and they started driving more again. Although the newer cars at that time got better economy.

Funny how money motivates people more than just about anything else. Most people don't drive less or more fuel efficient cars for environmental reasons. They do it because it affects their pocket book. Same with home electricity and gas.

[OlderAndWiser]

In 1979, we were in a record inflationary spiral. $1.00 for gas was an astronomical price because the average cost of gas in 1978 was $0.65 per gallon.

www.cnbc.com/.../...ost-every-year-since-1978.html

[WindAtMyBack]

@OlderAndWiser

Yea, inflation was sky high. Unemployment was high. Interest rates were high. The country was divided - still not recovered from Vietnam and all the protesting. The country wasn't feeling good about itself.

Then Ronnie came along and gave everyone a pep talk, and the country started feeling better about itself again.

A lot of people cashed in on high interest CDs, T-bills, etc. I missed that one, but I did cash in on silver when the Hunts were doing their thing.

I was using a non inflation adjusted chart and memory for gas prices. www.creditdonkey.com/gas-price-history.html

[dustybiker]

They greed of the oil companies and banks. I’ll be glad to be done with gas stations completely in a few years.

[purplepoppy]

Was actually cheap back then? Or just a case of 28c being a lot of money back then?

[ArrowheadSW]

It would be interesting to adjust that 28 cents per gallon to current dollar value. My guess without looking it up it would be equivalent to about $2.00 a gallon in today's dollars.

[OlderAndWiser]

I remember seeing gas for 18¢ or 19¢ per gallon in 1962. Bring it on.

[MrOracle]

To have a reasonable comparison, compare the cost of a 1500 sq-ft 3-bedroom home in 1957 to the cost of the same in 2022. I suspect that you'll realize that, due to inflation, we're still paying less for gas in relative terms than they were in 1957. In fact, here's a rough comparison:

Approximate price in the Bay Area:

1957: $12,200
2022: $465,000

This means the price of a house has gone up 38 times the price in 1957. If gas had gone up that much, it would be $10.60/gallon today. To be fair, the price of housing has gone up faster than the rise in inflation, as modern homes have much higher-end features and materials that cost more to build, but the comparison is still useful to put things into perspective.

[Jaximus-Lion]

As a 16 year old kid in 1999, drove my dad's 1981 (4 doors) Chevy Malibu, in Iraq, so when i filled that car with gas, we paid what we felt like, there was no price. No one believes it, the only ones who believes are those who was there and seen it. I used to fill the car with 40 Liter and paid about 500 Iraqi dinars (which is about almost a dollar) back in 1999. Unfortunately i have absolutely nothing to prove any of this, I asked my dad and he said he pays 500 dinars for the gas and a 100 dinars for the guy that worked there. But in 2003! 🤣🤣🤣 You know! Fresh water was like finding gold.

[ArrowheadSW]

I think seeing it drop to 50% of today's cost would be cool. A lot of people are really hurt by it today.

[ArtemisSilver]

Yeah I'd also like Big Mike's to make a comeback and for art deco to be in vouge but some things are simply over.

Red hydrogen is the best we can hope for.

[Likes2drive]

Well peoples pay was a lot less back then, if cas became too cheap we probably would have less incentive to use less and create more pollution than there is

[jshm2]

Fuck that, I'm planning on going electric next year anyway.

[exitseven]

I can just barely remember when gas was 36 cents a gallon.

[TroyDT2]

Using that logic, just raise gas to $25/per gallon and traffic will dwindle to a trickle.

[Nikki1989]

Don't care. I don't pay for fuel anyway.

[NamerOfStars]

Cheap gas? Yes. LEADED gas? Not so much.

[BLP11520]

I paid 1.19 for a tank of gas once under Trump... under 2.00$ many times

[FilmGuy93]

Yeah, sounds nice.

[USLegionary]

Of course but you got to factor inflation into it.

[SnowedIn]

Yes please!

[SnowedIn]

Re: your update: would I like more traffic? No. But the dislike from that is a smaller dislike than the joy of inexpensive gas.