Mf is really over 90 y.o. I had to check his wikipedia page 😱
“And we got free lead in it too!”
I’m sorry. “as a college student”, “72 yrs ago”. You guys really need to cap the age at which a person is allowed to make decisions that impact the lives of millions of people. Jeez, at least make cognitive testing mandatory.
That’s because our taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize this obsolete form of energy. We should be focusing on energy of the future instead of energy of the past.
Yeah I wonder how we got the gas to stay that cheap. I wouldn’t worry about it.
What if he can math but knows his constituents can’t or won’t.
Chuck Grassley is 92 years old.
He was college age from 1951-ish to 1954-ish.
Gas prices were $0.27 to $0.29 a gallon back then.
https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-741-august-20-2012-historical-gasoline-prices-1929-2011
Adjusted for inflation, that’s $3.37 to $3.49 today…
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
Buuuuut… Another way of looking at it…
The minimum wage in the early 1950s was $0.75/hr.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart
So a gallon of gas was between 36% and 39% of an hours worth of minimum wage work.
The current minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. A gallon of gas at the current average of $2.847 is 39% of an hours worth of minimum wage work.
Well … fuck, I just got done grabbing the BLS inflation calculation for .25 from 1973 and that’s $3.05 today but your post is just already here making me feel silly for even thinking about commenting.
Cool stats though, it’s interesting to see how the cost has more or less stayed in line with inflation. I think that’s what you’d expect to see with most commodities from that time to now, but I’m also an idiot who got like a C in my macroeconomics class so I don’t really know.
… if only the most expensive things stayed the same ratio - like mortgage/rent, health insurance, retirement, college. Minimum wage is $7.25, rent costs $1.5k. Got an A in macro, but only a B in micro. I wonder what happened…
Yeah it’s wild how fucked our economy is.
The divorce of worker productivity from worker pay leading to the huge wealth gap we see today is really bad for everyone but the 1%.
Almost as if inflation is a function of energy prices, as everything we consume requires energy to produce and transport.
You mean the opposite? Inflation is strictly a conscious, economical decision.
It couldn’t possibly be that the greediest of corporations in the world are those in the energy trust feeding its destruction!
Actually kinda cool stats.
Meanwhile everything else is much more expensive today.
Gas could double in price and it would still be the least of my concerns.
But his math is correct?
¢25 in 1953, 72 years ago, is $3.03 when adjusted for inflation according to US Inflation Calculator.
And the current gas price is $2.4 per gallon in Iowa where he is from. (Not sure where he went to college but whatever.)
It’s ¢60 cheaper per gallon now, when adjusted for inflation.
If he’s right about the price he paid, he’s also right about it being cheaper now.
Surely Trump didn’t help during all these 72 years but the math is correct, even if the logic is flawed.
Now do minimum wage
Surprisingly it come out more or less equivalent, around 39% of an hour at minimum wage
Great! Now do rent.
That’s much worse, in Iowa, average real cost has about doubled since 1953
Year Current Dollars Constant 2020 Dollars
2025 $1,027 $808
2024 $981 $807
2023 $943 $801
2022 $860 $761
2020 $808 $808
2000 $470 $724
1990 $336 $661
1980 $226 $688
1970 $99 $585
1960 $68 $516
1950 $43 $397
1940 $23 $370
It sure as hell ain’t $2.4 a gallon here.
Welp, you gotta compare apples to apples.
I added the detail about the gas price in Iowa, where this senator is from. Not sure if he went to college there but meh.
This statistic is so useless all it is proving is that not all statistics are useful in proving a point.
This
statisticboomer is so useless all it is proving is that not allstatisticsboomers are useful inproving a point.society.FIFY
Even if his math is correct, it’s a stupid point cause our incomes haven’t matched inflation and that’s all that really matters.
Not to mention that gas is a larger part of the average persons budget than it was 72 years ago. We live in a car distopia without any good public transit. It’s also why looking at a single thing like gas prices is a dumb way to judge how affordable living is.
We live in a car distopia[sic] without any good public transit.
Are you based in America?
Yes. And the context of this post is talking about America.
Alright, just checking. 🤷♂️
Our incomes should have matched productivity to get ahead. Matching inflation is just treading water.
This is a great talking point and I’m stealing it
We drowning
You don’t even need to bring income into it. Inflation is the whole point of the “things were cheaper in the old days” trope, if you adjust for inflation then all you’re saying is we’ve seen zero progress. Even on its own terms it’s still not a brag.
True, especially because isn’t gas prices one of the things that define inflation so doing that calculation doesn’t really mean anything? Also so many fewer people were driving in those days.
If elected, I’ll make gas even more expensive, and spend the tax revenue on bus/train infrastructure.
Shut up and take my vote!
Guys, why aren’t you giving Trump credit for 72 years of progress in petroleum engineering and decades of wars for oil?
Why the fuck is a 92 year old man still actively holding office?
And what insane political system would allow this to happen?
This is elder abuse!
You mean the elderly is abusing us, I totally agree
In this case both works.
This guy doesn’t get to enjoy his pension, while younger generations has to wait longer to get actual representation of their views among serving politicians.
Except, as far as we know, nobody is forcing him to be there. He could just resign today if he wanted to.
Turns out OP can’t math hahaha
