i haven't had a $20 fill up yet but the next one will be. i've been riding the big bear for the last few weeks and gas prices have gone up quite a bit in the time. the electra glide is just about empty so the next time it comes out of the garage, it'll get a $20 fill up.

 

You can bet your *** those were the good ole days (or daze), which ever crowd you belong to. Enough for now back to the present time.

 

Yeah but minimum wage was for entry level workers then. I remember recent high school graduates in my working class neighborhood driving new muscle cars a year or two out if school. So I dont know what the statistics say, but I know that liars figure and figures lie.

Our economy now is all smoke and mirrors where the rich, poor and politicians do well, and the middle class struggles. I haven't seen so many rusty cars since the 60's.

 

No living in the past here.
I was around when gas went for $.25/gal. and my federally mandated minimum wage was $1.60/hr.
Everything has it's perspective and the $5K/year salary that would SO **** you off actually equates to the $37K you think is so 'average' now.
Ya know, us 'old farts' were, at one time, as young and stupid as you are now.
Keep gettin' older - we still have hope for you, young Skywalker.

 

Ah so you do get my point. That was then, this is now (not know as you spelled it), everything is inflated. Salaries, gas prices, price of food etc. It's all relative and that was my point. You can't be complaining about how things cost so much today when you make so much more than 50 yrs ago.



Thanks for the hope.

 

I sure as hell can complain and rightfully so, Grasshopper.
You see, I HAVE to make so much more because everything is SO much more expensive now. (Give it a few years - you'll eventually get it, I promise.)
Oh and thanks for catching my typo, corrected to your satisfaction, my man.

 

If I'm not mistaken, but the annual poverty level in the US is $25,000.00 a year
someone will prove this wrong........

 

You're missing the point.

At 1 an hr/40 hrs a week/52 per year = $2080
At 1.60 an hr/40 hrs a week/52 weeks a year = $3328
At 7.25 an hr/40 hrs a week/52 weeks a year = $15080

Okay so the maths. This is how much gas you could buy on a yearly salary.

31 cents per gallon was the average cost in 1960
1960s:
Minimum Wage - $2,080 / $ 0.31 = 6,709.677 gallons of gas
Leftcoaster's Salary in 196x - $3,328 / $ 0.31 = 10,735.483 gallons
Average Salary - $4,743 / $ 0.31 = 15,300 gallons

Today (gas was 3.80 when i filled up today):
Minimum Wage -- $15,080 / $3.80 = 3,968.421 gallons
Average Salary -- $37,000 / $3.80 = 9,736.842 gallons



This! The above figures are only the increase in gas. Now think about food has gone up, that's just one thing. Even if the manufacturers have kept "prices" the same they now put less in a package. So they too have went up.


As far as electricity goes. First off electricity is expensive too. My woman has a four bedroom apartment. It cost her $280 a month to heat the thing in winter. How much to charge an electrical car? Most people don't have garages to put the cars in to charge over night. What about those who live in apartment buildings that can't charge their new electric cars. There's also no "fast recharge" stations on the road for taking the car more then 100 miles. We have no infrastructure right now for electrical vehicles and until we do it just isn't viable. That's not to mention what car manufacturers want for an electric car, sorry if I'm dropping 40k on a car it better have 500 hp.

 

Amen to that. Heard an economist on TV today saying that with the cost of an electric car, and the electricity to charge it, you'd have to drive it 180 years to break even.

 

Another point to make on the figures above. If some of us made (again on average) around 25K a year 10 to 15 years ago. Now our salary has increased to 45k to 50k and gas, groceries, taxes, etc. goes up. What will it cost us to live in another 30 years. Will our pay go up exponentionally?