Date:         Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:48:28 -0700
Reply-To:     VW Doka <vw.doka@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         VW Doka <vw.doka@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Why gas prices change so quickly,
              etc etc.  No real van content..
In-Reply-To:  <721490.61163.qm@web51006.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

I was thinking about this as well, and I remember gas prices hitting $1.00
in 1979.

So I looked it up... the national average was $0.86/gallon in 1979,
$1.25/gallon in 1980.

I lived in the San Diego area (Leucadia), so prices were a bit higher.  I
remember it because I had a brand new driver's license and very little
money.  Ah... the good old days, you could buy gas with loose change and get
enough to go surfing.

Cheers,

Jeff

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf Of
levi hawkins
  Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2008 4:13 PM
  To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
  Subject: Re: Why gas prices change so quickly, etc etc. No real van
content..


        Not to be a nitpicker, but I remember gas prices very well in 88,
since that's when it hit 1.00 per gallon, and my business at the time used
quite a bit of gas.
        In 1975, texas oil patch, I remember .44 cents, and we had good gas
prices there.

        --- On Fri, 4/18/08, Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET> wrote:

          From: Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
          Subject: Why gas prices change so quickly, etc etc. No real van
content..
          To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
          Date: Friday, April 18, 2008, 10:18 AM


"Used to be, an out of work hippy could buy a van and travel to his
heartscontent"?  Well yah, maybe.  Not now, though.  In fact, even a working
hippy has avery difficult time buying or traveling in a van now, when gas is
about
  13times as expensive as 20 years ago...(very late "Hippy-era") Let's look
ait:  Gas will soon hit $4.00 yet a journeyman carpenter still makes what
hedid 20 years ago.  Don't ask me how I know this for sure, but according
toan average wage search on Google, it IS true, and according to the money
Imake, again, true.   I am still one of them working hippies, I guess..
$16an hr back in the 80s and about $18 now, if you can find a house to
workon... Yet 20 years ago a gallon of gas was around $.30  Thirty...cents!
So youcould fill your van for about $4.80...or about the cost we'll soon
bepayingfor ONE gallon of fuel..  So now a days, they want about $3-4
hundred bucksa month for health care.  That was my single guy rate with Blue
Crossrecently....that is  ~ one week's wage.  Fill the van to drag your
tools tothe job once a week..another weeks wage each month..Forget a car or
a housepayment,
 because tools wear out, and of course, you gotta plan for when thecurrent
job is done and you have to find another somewhere.  Now, if sumpingoes
wrong on the van, or you drop your skilsaw off the roof and itbreaks.....you
better go get a night job..flipping burgers at Mickey D's
orsomething..Funny, the van I drive now is over 30 years old, but back in
thereal "hippy days," I could afford one that was only 15 years old on a
veryvery part time carpenters wage...Hmmm...And if I wanted a Go Westy van,
atmy current wage it would take me about........8 years to earn enough to
payfor it...Shoot, If only I'd a known...I could have started saving back
inthe 80s to buy an....80-sumpthin Westy 35 years later...  You suppose, if
there were still such a thing as journeyman tradesmen,that some of the "new"
middle class, like the Dot-com workers, orsomesaving and loan officers,
or...what other jobs have been
 'created in the USlately?.....would be willing to pay an equivalent wage to
what we got backwhen gas was cheaper and going to the doc cost about $50 a
visit?...Let'ssee, if I wanted to 'stay even' with the increase in costs for
stufflikegas, insurance, health care, etc I would need to up my rates about
13 times,or charge a fair wage of ....oh, about $325 per hour.  I just read
on theweb news where the two guys who started Google just made around 2
Billionper hour a few days back..so I guess that would be reasonable...$325
perhour for a carpenter who's been in the trade for 30 years...  Hee hee,
fat f---ing chance..We now have 'guest workers' who'll'assemble'a house for
$7.20 an hour..  Fryeday.. so excuse the joking post..  Don Hanson


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