I just had occasion to use an inflation calculator with a colleague,
using the cost of gasoline in 1950, recently reported as  27 cents per
gallon.  The calculator equates that to a 2004 price of $2.04.   In
1964, as a college student, I bought gas regularly (in station gas wars)
for 15 cents per gallon, or a 2004 price of 92 cents.  Not a good
comparison, maybe, but tells more of the story.

Given that US oil production peaked in 1971 and continues in a
declining state, if reports are correct, then the numbers may become
much more "interesting" in the future.

Of course, our Brit friends are paying in the neighborhood of $5.00 per
gallon, again if reports are correct.

The calculator is titled "What's a Dollar Worth?" and may be found at:
http://minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/

Interesting to play around with, especially with your salary in your
first job.  My first professional job was in 1965, of course, making for
interesting numbers.

Hal Hall



>>> [log in to unmask] 05/19/04 08:39AM >>>
>It was, as far as I'm concerned, very up-to-date for something that
>was already twenty years old. For a genre that's supposed to be about
>the future, it's often struck me as ironic that SF very quickly seems
>outdated in both topic and language.
>
>
>
Sort of unrelated, but I'm reading A Scanner Darkly, which was written
in the 70s but supposed to take place in 1994, and the main character
notes that regular gas costs $1.04.  Oh no, over a dollar?  If only.
Rachel