Monday, May 08, 2006

Some random thoughts...

on the price of Gasoline.
I will be doing quite a bit of motoring while in the various canals that lie along my route. For this reason, I included gasoline as a major item in my cruising budget. Now that the price of gas has gone through the roof, I have to rejuggle my budget to make allowances. That got me thinking about what's really happening here.
Consider: Prior to 1964, a "dollar" was actually a piece of silver of a certain size, weight and purity. A gallon of gasoline cost about $0.29. Today, a newly minted Silver Eagle (offically carrying a face value of $1.00) costs about $13.73 in Federal Reserve Notes (FRN's). So...with gas selling for $3.119 (FRN), that works out to 4.402 gallons per silver dollar, or about $0.227 per gallon in real/silver dollars. Once again, what's happening is NOT that gasoline is getting expensive, it's that dollars are gradually becoming worthless.
Last summer, my home marina had to sell gasoline by the 1/2 gallon, as their pump was so old it didn't have a "2" for the first digit in the price. I guess they will be selling it by the quart this year.
I can't wait to see what the price will be in Canada. Their "dollar" has even less value than ours.

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