But gas tax isn’t tied to inflation and it’s a fixed dollar amount per gallon (not a percentage), so $100/barrel should be relatively close to the same as it was in in the mid-2000s, yet it’s doubled.
Why do you think gas isn’t affected by inflation? Costs go up with inflation. This increases the price. Remember that the cost of the commodity itself is effectively zero. The cost is all in exploration, extraction, refinement, transport, and sale. All of that goes up with inflation.
The price per barrel includes almost all those expenses, so inflation should be reflected there.
The rest is offset by a gas tax that’s deflationary. The federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon hasn’t changed since 1993.
The price at the pump should be correlated much more strongly with the price of a barrel than with inflation, and the price per barrel was similar or higher during the Bush administration.
Yes, but the price at the pump isn’t reflective of the current price of oil, which is the whole point of what I’m saying. The price of oil hasn’t kept up with inflation while the price at the pump has outpaced inflation.
But gas tax isn’t tied to inflation and it’s a fixed dollar amount per gallon (not a percentage), so $100/barrel should be relatively close to the same as it was in in the mid-2000s, yet it’s doubled.
Why do you think gas isn’t affected by inflation? Costs go up with inflation. This increases the price. Remember that the cost of the commodity itself is effectively zero. The cost is all in exploration, extraction, refinement, transport, and sale. All of that goes up with inflation.
The price per barrel includes almost all those expenses, so inflation should be reflected there.
The rest is offset by a gas tax that’s deflationary. The federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon hasn’t changed since 1993.
The price at the pump should be correlated much more strongly with the price of a barrel than with inflation, and the price per barrel was similar or higher during the Bush administration.
Right, which means that the inflation adjusted price of oil today is significantly lower than it was in 2008.
Yes, but the price at the pump isn’t reflective of the current price of oil, which is the whole point of what I’m saying. The price of oil hasn’t kept up with inflation while the price at the pump has outpaced inflation.
There’s some fuckery there.