[Carlhole]

I've noticed over the last couple of years that the "all-time inflation-adjusted price" of oil keeps getting higher. I used to see articles which equated the 1981 price high of oil to about $66 in today's dollars. Now I see them compare the 1981 price to above $90 in today's dollars.

But I wonder what the price graph would look like if you charted the average cost of driving a mile in the 1960 through 2005 period as a percentage of average income?

Is there a geek in the house?

(There's never a geek around when you need one).

[strider3700]

Ok then we need the following info preferably in monthly increments

Average price of gas from start to end

Average yearly income from start to end

Mileage you would like to use to calculate this off of

Average mileage for vehicles from start to end is interesting as well but would complicate things

I don't have time to track it all down but it's easy enough once the data is entered into a spreadsheet

[turmoil]

Average mileage for vehicles from start to end is interesting as well but would complicate things

That is key...gas may be relatively cheap now, but now people drive a lot farther in low MPG SUVs.

Also we might want inflation rates.

[ohanian]

I propose

Big Macs per Gallon of petrol/gasoline

[pup55]

http://peakoil.com/fortopic359.html+income
http://peakoil.com/fortopic8256.html+beer

[SchroedingersCat]

in 1972 the US milage reimbursment for employee use of their personal vehicle was $0.10 per mile. This year it's $0.405 per mile. That's about 300% over 33 years, 10% per year?

[emersonbiggins]

in 1972 the US milage reimbursment for employee use of their personal vehicle was $0.10 per mile. This year it's $0.405 per mile. That's about 300% over 33 years, 10% per year?

1972 Per Capita Income (U.S. Avg) - $4,717
2004 Per Capita Income (U.S. Avg) - $32,937

That's 698% over 33 years, 21% per year.

Seems our reimbursement is falling farther behind than ever.

[freetoken]

I tried that a bit back, looking up the various data ( a great deal is online), but having a Mac (and unwilling to buy Excel) leaves me with limited shareware software to create graphs...

But I did post, a while back, the scenario of a family doing a round trip driving vacation, from Nebraska to San Diego, comparing two years: the one with highest adjusted oil price (the peak in the early '80's) vs 2005. Taking into account improved MPG (both families estimated to have mid-market Buicks) the family of 2005 was getting the better deal (wrt to their 'average' incomes) than the family in the early '80's.

That is why the current price of oil is still not seen as being enough to curtail the current desire of the gasoline consumers.

-ft