Nostalgia About Gas Prices, Pizza, and Inflation In General
Inflation is a powerful economic force, and people seem to forget that what sounds like it was cheap 40 years ago was actually more expensive than it is today.
Hello, friends,
Last week, we talked about the NBC/MSNBC hiring of ex-RNC chair and professional journalist hater Ronna McDaniel. Since then, NBC has fired McDaniel, to which NPR is asking why they should have paid contributors. And, look, if they could pay Elie Mystal for his appearances, that’d be fine with me. People should be paid for their time and talents! But I suppose it’s a good enough “work for exposure” promise that one actually does get book sales and other dividends from it, so there’s that.
This week, well, I didn’t know what to write about, so I went to the sickening seas of Twitter to find a topic. There were many that I knew would be covered, like how Trump capitalized off of a police officer’s murder while having left the Capitol Police to die in his coup attempt. Really a Blue Lives Matter guy, innit he?
Patrick De Haan, the Gas Buddy Guy, is - well - your gas buddy guy! He tracks gas prices, and he put together an image yesterday that caught my attention. Remember how things used to be so much cheaper in the 1980’s? Here’s his take on that:
I mean, what more do I really have to say? I’ve got it! “Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to The Progressive Cafe!”
Let’s Dig Into Gas Prices A Bit.
We’re hearing about how “Gas was only a buck thirty one under Reagan.” But people made less per year, as well. That means that every dollar was more dearly won. De Haan explains how, with each dollar harder to come by, the overall cost equivalent out of one’s paycheck is higher. That’s a strange way to express oneself.
If you use the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator and just raw dog the dollar values in comparison, you get a value equivalent to $4.34 per gallon. Not quite De Haan’s measurement of $4.44, but the point comes across all the same
In other words, yes: Gas is cheaper today than it was in the 1980’s under Reagan. Did we print out stupid “I did that!” stickers to mock Reagan’s gas prices? Probably not, right?
Furthermore, according to De Haan two additional things are true: We produce far more oil than we did (35% more), and today’s fuels are cleaner.
The first fact is pretty self explanatory in terms of directly lowering prices. We have more supply just within the U.S., to say nothing of the global market (which is currently wracked by a war that led to sanctions on one of the largest fossil fuel producing nations…), which overall suggests there’s a greater supply of fuel available even after we account for the increases in fuel demand from industrializing economies.
The second is a bit more optimistic than a “Drill Baby Drill, We Need Moar Oil” approach. Modern fuels burn better for the environment; better for the car’s engine requiring less maintenance; and - I’m guessing, here - better for the overall fuel economy. Oh! And I’ll add that fuel economies have gotten better, so we mostly get more miles to the gallon depending on what car we drive. Also, there’s no lead in our gasoline, which was still a thing (albeit in limited quantities) in 1982.
How’s That For Nostalgia? Here’s A Pizza Tale From A Popular Film.
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Fast Times At Ridgemont High is one of those films I watched when I was younger and found a bit funnier than I probably would, today. I guess it’s proximity to a high school environment, plus dated humor and all that jazz, plus the nudity of a character who I’m pretty sure is under-age even if the actress wasn’t.
But when thinking of 1980’s nostalgia, I remembered that the price of a slice of pizza is given. According to the IMDB Goofs page, it’s $1.10. It landed as a “goof” because there’s a five-cent change given, which sounds alien to us given that we’d probably pay for it in quarters today, but makes sense when you think of smaller coin denominations (three quarters, four dimes).
Fast Times was released in August of 1982. That means this price was decided on in pre-production, but let’s take it at its word. A slice of pizza in 1982 at a mall used to cost $1.10. According to the inflation calculator, that’s $3.49 today.
Now, I have zero idea what toppings, if any, were on that fictional pizza (I don’t remember much about the film), but I just checked my local pizza joint (NOT a mall place, where heavy foot traffic brings about bulkier purchases and, thus, lower prices) and a plain slice costs - wait for it - $3.70. Just slightly less. And I’m willing to bet that you’re getting a better quality slice than 1980’s mall pizza would be.
For reference, another place I’ve frequented charges $3.50.
So, at the very least, the cost of a slice of pizza has gone down. And that’s fine. Remember, once again, we live in a time where one of the world’s major wheat and oil producers has been invaded by its neighbor that also produces a lot of oil. That’s spiked global costs, both directly (wheat is in shorter supply) and indirectly (oil is in short supply, increasing transport costs).
I’m not suggesting 1982 was magically that much better, but I don’t think it was like this. The Falkland Islands war in April doesn’t compare to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I mean, sure, Israel invaded its neighbor Lebanon, but that seems to be par for the Israeli course. Let’s not forget that the first CDs were made in 1982, or that Michael Jackson released Thriller. And all this time, 1982 saw a surplus in oil supply, meaning these higher-than-today prices actually took place during a time of high supply.
Interesting, no?
So What Does This Tell Us?
To paraphrase Penn and Teller’s episode on the topic, it tells us that nostalgia is bullshit. Wow do I want more Penn and Teller’s Bullshit. I miss that show, and it was just getting good when it went off the air.
See? Even I’m not immune to finding myself wearing nostalgia goggles: I might be right about that, but I haven’t watched it in so long that I don’t know for sure if it was really as good as I remember. It was certainly a more innocent time, a time when Penn and Teller were libertarian mavericks who honestly criticized ideas before the idea of Libertarianism became bootlicking with extra steps.
But when we say “prices used to be cheaper,” that’s not always true. It might be! But ask yourself what the average internet bill was back in the early 80’s. The answer is probably, “Most people didn’t have the internet.”
The thing about Progressivism is that it’s a philosophy built around looking towards a better future, so for some of us it’s little surprise that things have, at least in some fields, gotten better. There’s many where it hasn’t, but progress is never a straight line, so we have to accept dips and rises.
And that’s where I’ll leave you. Now for the return of In Other News, at least a little of it.
In Other News…
We already talked about NBC firing Ronna McDaniel.
Remember my article about the postal system in general, or my colleague Jamie’s about the Buffalo mail processing center being up for a relocation? Well, speaking of progress, we won! The USPS won’t be relocating the Buffalo center. Many jobs were just saved.
Republican Representative Tim Walburg suggested nuking Gaza. You know, because he’s such a fucking idiot that he’s got no understanding of a little concept called “Fallout.”
As you’ve probably heard by now, The Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore collapsed, creating all sorts of havoc for traffic and also impeding shipping into the harbor. That debris is being cleared, but it’ll take time before everything’s up and running. This will surely lead to at least a short-term inflationary spike as international trade is impacted.
Republican Presidential Nominee-Apparent Donald Trump is sharing images of his opponent, President Joe Biden, gagged and perhaps shot in the back of a truck. You know, totally normal stuff that any other citizen would get a knock on the door from the FBI and Secret Service over.
To end on an uplifting note, Slovakia has expedited its closure of its last coal power plant, meaning better environmental conditions are on their way. The space that the coal plant once occupied might be replaced with solar power generating equipment, which is a plus!
Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe. If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list. This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a former hyperlocal journalist and sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.