Legal Commentary

Musings on the Price of Gas

By Jeralyn

Steve's Audio has a post up on our economic condition using the Little Pink Houses video I took in Iowa at a John Edwards campaign event.

Steve notes that in 1967, at the end of his first year in college, gas was 21 cents a gallon and his parents bought their home for $27,000.

When I moved to Colorado in 1971 to start law school, I have a vivid recollection of driving to Target (a novelty in itself for someone from the East Coast) in my yellow mustang convertible with the top down, and stopping on the way for gas and to buy a pack of Marlboros. I remember it because they were the same price: 26 cents a gallon and 26 cents a pack.

My first apartment in law school, a one bedroom in Capitol Hill, right off Colfax (not a ritzy area but decent enough) was big and bright, and the rent was $125.00 a month. Like Steve, I had a minimum wage job for $1.35 or so an hour, working for the same record store chain I had worked for in Ann Arbor during college.

Steve crunches the numbers: [More...]

Proportions: Gas = 17% of minimum wage. House = 22,300 x minimum wage.

Today, CA minimum wage is $7.50, and gas in our area is $3.86/gal. Mom's house is worth (according to Zillow.com) is worth $600,ooo.

Proportions: Gas = 51% of minimum wage. House = 80,000 x minimum wage. That's progress, just in the wrong direction.

What are your earliest recollections of what things cost once you started living on your own? What's your solution for fixing them now? And does anyone else miss John Edwards?

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 19, 2008 (boomark / email).