The rising Cost of Fuel over the years

In 1969 I paid 17 cents a gallon in San Pedro for Gasoline I believe it was at the Mohawk station there then.

Last year or so when I went to Big Sur they were charging between $5 and 6$ a gallon for regular at that point for awhile. Last year in regular stations we paid about a dollar more a gallon than this year. So, last year we were paying around $4.50 a gallon on average and this year it is about $3.50 a gallon on average with prices fluctuating like you know they do. However, how long do you suppose it will be until gas stays at $5 a gallon or more and keeps rising even here in California where everyone pretty much drives (even if it is a Prius) (10% of all new cars in California are either Hybrids or electrics because of the price of Gasoline and trying to be ecological and knowing if you drive a hybrid or electric you are helping to keep the price of gasoline and diesel down too.

But, the point I want to make here is what is the percentage of the price of gasoline per gallon here in the U.S. in relation to the Minimum wage?

This tells us something far more important than you might think.

In 1969 if I could buy 17 cents a gallon even as a 21 year old or teenager a person could afford (even on a part time job to buy at least 5 to 6 gallons of gas for working one hour at a minimum wage.

Now, what is the minimum wage where you live?

And how many gallons of gas can you buy now with a minimum wage job (1 or 2)?

This is only part of it.

Now, it isn't just the gas you pay that is more for each and every gallon, every person who ships your food, gas, oil, furniture, cars, goods of all kinds, generates your electricity etc. also pays more and because of this people cannot afford to have the kinds of lives they once could in the 1960s anymore. Because everyone from farmer to truck driver to UPS to Food Store has to then charge you more because they are charged more at each and every point for everything made or transported or grown.

And then, now take this to Europe where often Gas is $10 a gallon but most of you don't know this because it is sold in Liters over there which is much smaller units than gallons. So, you might have no idea how much you are paying unless you go there.

So often, people will rent you manual shift cars to save gas, the cars often stop running at stop lights or stop signs completely wherever you are in Europe. Imagine how much more everything costs there if you are paying $10 a gallon for gasoline to move every thing you need to buy?

The point I'm making is the price of gas and oil is one of the many reasons the Great Recession happened, why cities are going bankrupt in the U.S. and why Greece is going bankrupt.

And even though the U.S. is now the biggest producer of oil in the World at this point, how long can we keep this up because there is only so much oil in the ground? And the scarcer something becomes over time the more it costs. And as these costs rise more and more over the years most people here on earth will have less and less as a direct result.

This is what is happening to the world in this century as oil goes slowly up and up in price as it becomes harder and harder to get what we have left out of the ground or out of the oceans of the world.