Gas Woes

I've been seeing (happy?) stories about gas prices expected to go down 25 cents by this summer.  That's better than nothing, but hardly anything to get excited about. Let us not forget the last time gas was over 4 bucks a gallon (mid-2008?).  Less than a year later, it was back below two bucks, as this blurry picture -- that's 1.85 for regular -- from my aborted picture-a-day project shows; this was 02 Jan 2009.  Now that's a real reduction.

Gas Prices

I've been seeing stories about $4 gas this summer.  It doesn't seem that far off. I'm already paying 3.40 for premium, which is something like 3.19 for regular. (I think the most I ever saw near my house was 4.25 for regular when it peaked a couple years ago.)

I found this interactive chart on gasbuddy.com. It only goes back 6 years, but that's far enough to see when prices first crossed 2 bucks a gallon: a mere 6 years ago. (Granted, I'm assuming it didn't do so earlier, followed by a big drop to get down to where this chart starts.)



(Note that this chart is live, so it's 6 years back from whenever you're reading this.)

Is this worth kvetching about?  That was a rhetorical question.  Here's something that bugs me.  Let's say we get $4 gas by May.  Doubled in 6 years.  But I'm not earning twice what I made at the beginning of 2005.  Heck, looking at today's $3.18 average for Illinois, I'm also not making anywhere close to 1.6 times more. If I really want to disgust myself -- you can decide which part of this equation disgusts me more -- I'll look at what gas prices would be if they increased as much as my salary did since hitting $2 a gallon.  You know, I don't think I could complain if gas had risen all the way to $2.33/gallon.

Today's Economic Outlook

Today's outlook is: not good? I was getting my car washed at the dealership today. It was so quiet. I was the only one in the waiting room, enjoying my complimentary fancy coffee and bagel. Usually at least a couple other people are there. For comparison, back in 2003-2004, it'd be packed on a Saturday morning and you could wait a couple hours.

Out in the showroom it wasn't any more busy. There were a couple people milling about -- all salesmen. Heck, out in the front parking lot, there was a big empty section. I would think you'd arrange the empty spots to be out back somewhere and always keep the front area near the street full of shiny new cars. At least, that's how it usually is. I guess that just means their inventory is low and I'm not sure what that means, economically speaking.

In non-car dealer news, I saw this in a Chicago Tribune story this morning. The numbers make for a staggering comparison. (On the other hand, the world can change a lot in 45 years.)

In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men had acquired certain traditional markers of maturity by age 30: leaving home, completing school, full-time employment, marriage and family. In 2005, the figure had plummeted to 27 and 39 percent, respectively, according to the MacArthur Research Network.

And that's today's economic outlook!