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.
Turns out OP can’t math hahaha
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.
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.
It sure as hell ain’t $2.4 a gallon here.
Welp, you gotta compare apples to apples.
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Is the joke that the replier doesn’t understand inflation? CPI calculator
Guys, why aren’t you giving Trump credit for 72 years of progress in petroleum engineering and decades of wars for oil?
If elected, I’ll make gas even more expensive, and spend the tax revenue on bus/train infrastructure.
25 years ago, I regularly filled my tank for $1/gallon. Gas prices have more than quadrupled in 25 years.
To be fair, it’s also become more difficult to get oil, relying on methods such as fracking. But also, OPEC.
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?
Our incomes should have matched productivity to get ahead. Matching inflation is just treading water.
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.
And yet the media just repeats this bullshit until most low-info Americans think it’s the truth.
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.
If my napkin math is right*, he was in college between 1951 and 1956; with gas ranging from .24 to .27 dollars a gallon.
Adjusting for inflation that’s be about $2.40.
Sunday I paid 2.90 at Costco. It seems he’s full of shit.
(My napkin math is notorious for breaking the laws of physics. Best do your own… or else we might end up dividing by zero.)
Gas price ranges are huge by what area you’re in. You may have paid $2.90, but I paid $2.15. there’s a few areas in other states that I know are under $2.00. California probably mostly over $3.00.
I’ve noticed that a common sign of dementia is thinking gas costs what it did decades ago. My step dad would be sent in to pay for gas and he’d come back thinking $10 was more than enough to fill the tank. This was when gas was $4+ a gallon.
Chuck’s math is 25¢ a gallon. As you point out that is right about the price it was when he was in his prime. His post isn’t just about lying for Trump. It’s about mental decline.
You may be asking why my step dad with dementia was being sent in unattended to pay for gas when you could pay at the pump. Denial by his primary caregiver was also a factor. Make him do as many normal things as possible and then be shocked when they didn’t work out.
For some bizarre reason I was able to get gas at $2.05 on Monday.
The next day it was back to $2.92.
Must have been a weird price war between a handful of stations that day.
Or someone messed up programming the machine.
But still, that’s a score.
I checked around and about half the gas stations in the area were around $2.05 and half were around $2.90.
It’s possible one was accidentally set and a bunch of other gas stations price matched (possibly automatically?)
or it was cut with water
It was 1953 @ $0.25/gal. The CPI puts that at $3.00 in 2025 dollars. So literally the exact price.
… now taking into account purchasing power, since earnings did not keep up with inflation he was still much better than us.
It’s apparently $3 adjusted for inflation.
Problem is our wages have not adjusted for inflation
I haven’t seen it under $3 in a long while
US national average is $2.85. https://gasprices.aaa.com/
lotta bumfuck nowhere in the us
I managed to get gas for $2.31 on Tuesday. It was a Christmas miracle.
Adjusted for inflation from '53 to today that’s like $3 per gallon. Converted to metrics I understand that’s like 0,68€ a liter. That’s that‘s about a third of what you pay in Germany these days (incl. tax) on a bad day. (Typically around 1,80€/l)
My version of ‘adjusted for inflation’ is to look at what a paycheck could cover.
In 1960, the minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the average US home was $11,000.00 A high school graduate could own their own home. In those days, $1 million would buy you two fine homes, a fleet of cars, and enough left over to live off the income.
In German we‘d call that kaufkraftbereinigt. Adjusted for purchasing power.
Merry Christmas.
If you’ve never seen it, watch Marilyn Monroe in “How To Marry A Millionaire.”
Two lines I always remember. The three gals walk into a Park Avenue duplex apartment and one gasps “This place must rent for $1,000.00 a month!”
They go to a nightclub with a live orchestra and a twenty girl chorus line. “My God, the cheapest thing on the menu is $5.00!”
Thanks, fuck everything that isn’t metric
It’s still more expensive than the last time he tanked the economy. He can still fuck it up more.
