By George Anderson
Those who track such things will tell you that despite the record high prices consumers are paying at the pump today, when adjusted for inflation, the cost of filling up was much more financially painful in 1981.
Back then, a gallon of gas cost $1.42 but in today's dollars it was the equivalent of $3.04 a gallon. Today, putting a gallon of gas in your motor vehicle will run you, on average across all grades, $2.53 according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the U.S.
For those who help put such financial issues in perspective, we say, "Who cares!?!"
Consumers today, even those who were paying $1.42 in 1981, don't care that it was more expensive to fill up the tank back then. It's 2005 and we're living in the here and now.
Consumers, the 2005 variety, are really beginning to feel the pinch. While much of the emphasis to date has been focused on how high prices are hurting those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, more so-called affluent consumers are being adversely affected also.
Adolfo Fernandez, a Beemer driving resident of L.A., told The Associated Press, "I'm feeling it. I feel sorry for the people who really feel it and can't afford it."
Mr. Fernandez paid $2.97 a gallon for premium unleaded.
Moderator's Comment: Has the price of gas risen to the point where it will really begin to impact consumer purchasing except at possibly the highest rungs of the economic ladder?
Having recently come back from filling up the old Saturn and putting $21 and change on the credit card in one of the least expensive states to buy gas in the country, we realized that we're now paying $40 to $50 additional a week to drive than we were just a few years ago. Gonna need to sit down and look at the family budget tonight. - George Anderson - Moderator