Don't let the facts get in the way of your story. (gas prices, gallon)

[Versatile]

Mike Hall: Facts ruin a good story | CJOnline.com

A lot of what we know ain’t so.

Look at the success that Snopes.com and some other sites have had in checking the accuracy of “facts” that circulate by email.

■ “Gasoline prices are outrageously expensive compared with what our parents and grandparents paid.” I researched this one myself. It is true that in 1918 gasoline sold for 25 cents a gallon and didn’t rise above 50 cents a gallon until 1974.

But adjusted for inflation, the 1918 price was the equivalent of $3.75 a gallon in 2011 dollars. The 1974 price was equivalent to a little over $2 a gallon.

In terms of 2011 dollars, gasoline has never been higher than that 1918 price. It has taken 94 years, and we are just now entering record territory.

[Bulldawg82]

Sooooo, basically this article is saying that we should all be used to paying a lot for gasoline, because we always have (proportionally)? Hmmmm. This article is a good example of why there is that saying about lies, damned lies, and statistics (reference the "adjusted for inflation" exercise of the writer). The numbers seem to say the exact opposite of what every one is experiencing and it concludes that we are all just a bunch of whiners for complaining about high gas prices. The sky is blue, but someone out there, is busy crunching numbers to prove that we have all been wrong (all along) and that the sky is really yellow.

[GregW]

The problem is our inflation adjusted wages have not kept up with the gasoline prices.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by GregW

The problem is our inflation adjusted wages have not kept up with the gasoline prices.

Because the government has massaged what goes into the CPI.
Food and energy are NOT COUNTED.
With many raises based on the CPI it's no wonder they haven't kept up with real inflation.