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RE: Not exactly an RV type question...
Hope this helps you sleep better. I'll let you figure out the Unleaded question.
"We have to go way back to when the oil companies were selling gas for, let’s say, 15 cents, and then the state and federal boards decided they wanted a piece of that to keep the roads going, so they added 3/10 of a cent. And the oil companies said, ‘Well, we’re not going to eat that,’ so they passed that on to the public."
Raising prices a penny would have been disastrous when gas only cost 15 cents. But why did it stick around?
"They found out that if you priced your gas 1/10 of a cent below a break point, let’s say 40 cents a gallon, '.399' just looked to the public like 39 cents…"
You won't find tenths of a cent on your credit card bill. Or even on the pump. But if you buy 15 gallons of gas at $3.299, you’re paying 13 cents more than at just $3.29. Since Americans buy 178 million gallons of gas a day, that’s a half-billion dollars more per year.
Jacobsen says the price of gas is the hottest topic in his museum. But there's a big misconception out there.
"People come in here and they say, 'Oh, $0.185, oh, that’s tremendous. I wish it were that way today.' Well, it is. In fact it might be a little cheaper. If you take just inflation alone, gas at 30 cents then would be about $2.20 a gallon now, but you used to get 10 miles to the gallon. Now, we're averaging over 20 miles to the gallon."
Adjusted that way, gas cost $4.50 a gallon back in the day.
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justlou
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01/04/19 07:49am |
Around the Campfire
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