PY: Gas prices rise, but are still a bargain. Tourism benefits
Despite a significant drop in the use of gasoline, the U. S. government said that inventories of crude oil rose by 4.2 million barrels last week, nationwide drivers are now paying 30 cents a gallon more per gallon than last month.
The average price nationally is now 36 cents higher than last year.
The Washington Post and others report that gas prices rose for the 22nd straight day on Wednesday, and economists say it will not hurt the economic recovery because rising gas prices hurt less when an economy is improving than when it’s slowing down.
If gas breaks its record of $4.11 a gallon, however, all bets are off... or are they?
Gas a great buy compared with almost everything else
Gas prices are still one of the world's best buys, costing less by comparison today than it did a century ago. It's the staples like bread and eggs and milk which have skyrocketed.
Every time you and every other American stands at a gas pump, we all read the price, and most know how many pennies different it is at each visit.
But do you know what you paid for that last loaf or bread, dozen eggs or milk? Of course not. We are auto-obsessed, not bread, eggs or milk mad.
In 1912 a loaf of bread cost 5 cents, a dozen eggs 30 cents and a gallon of milk 36 cents compared with $7.22 today.
In 1912 gas sold for 20 cents a gallon, but a dollar back then is worth $22.57 today. That means that gas will still cost Americans less that a hundred years ago until it goes above $4.50 a gallon, while in the rest of the world, a gallon of gas has been double that for many years as smarter nations tax it to encourage drivers to buy cars that get far better mileage a gallon.
Plymouth is within a tankful of gas of 25 percent of the U. S. population
This reporter has lived and worked on the South Shore and Cape Cod through at least three similar high gas price times starting with the Arab oil embargo in 1974 and as recently as the big up-tick in gas prices a couple years ago.
Each time our area's hospitality industry benefited as vacationers realized that $15 more for a tanful was a lot cheaper than air fares which jumped over $100 per ticket. Do the math on that for a famiuly of four.
When parents are on vacation, they are not going to stay home with children who are usually in school all day, and this destination is within 600 miles of one-third of America's population, and a quarter of the U. S. lives within a tankful of gas.
