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Don’t
Believe All the Toot About Gas Prices
If you
listen to Fear Mongers and Doom and Gloom experts, you’ll
hear all sorts of spine-tingling things that will set your hair
on end. Take the rhetoric about gas prices for example. A recent
USA Today headline purported: "Oil Prices Hit Highest Since
Sept. 1990." Great story, but some stories are best suited
to fiction. They know how to “tell the tale” as P.G.
Wodehouse would say.
So what are
the facts? Let me place them before you: Gas prices have been moving
downward since folks in the ‘20s were kicking up their heels
to the Fox Trot, Bunny Hug and Charleston . Are you shocked and
surprised? Are you clutching your temporal lobe in consternation?
Is your lobe saying “this can’t be?” Well, before
you strain a corpuscle, let me explain. What the Doomsayers fail
to trouble us with is a “little” thing called inflation.
Steven Moore, Senior Fellow at CATO Institute, commenting on this
ineptness writes: “In the world of economics, this is an unpardonable
sin. After all, if you don't adjust for inflation, just about everything
is more expensive today than 30 years ago.”
So what is the
long-term trend of gas prices when looking at the inflation-adjusted
dollar? Quoting Moore , “Gasoline prices paid at the pump
have been on a steady rate of decline since the 1920s, with the
obvious exception of the 1970s, when we faced an OPEC embargo and
gasoline lines. In 1920 the real price of gas (excluding taxes)
was twice as high as today.” Let me paraphrase: we pay a pittance
for gas.
Now, don't get
me wrong. I do think visits to the pump are painful, especially
considering that virtually a few months ago prices were over 30%
cheaper. Likewise I understand that it has an impact on our economy.
But you must admit that knowing the truth about the situation paints
an entirely different picture. Thus we can look at the Fruit and
"see it clearly and see it whole," as our friend Wodehouse
would say.
We ought not
sell our beloved RVs, hide in our homes, chew our fingernails and
let the Doom and Gloomers make our flesh crawl. Rather, we should
thank our lucky stars (and President Eisenhower) that we have an
unprecedented highway system connecting the States of our one great
Nation (under God) to tool about and enjoy.
And when next
we think about the price of gas, we can be grateful that we don’t
live in Hong Kong , London , or France , where a gallon of The Magic
Fruit costs $5.38, $5.05, and $4.28 respectively.
Thank you Village
RV for this information
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