this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2025
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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 10 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

He's a really fucking old ass dude. When he was 20 years old gas was around $3.05 a gallon if you adjust for inflation. It's $4.50 near me right now.

But hey, let's talk about wages and electricity costs. Let's chat about rent and the cost of a house these days. Let's see what the cost of goods and groceries is doing. Most of us need computers, so let's talk about RAM and SSD costs under this regime that just dereguated AI and is nullifying state AI laws.

It's all worse.

Edit: let's just do the first two.

  1. prices for electricity are 938.39% higher in 2025 versus 1953
  2. prices for rent of primary residence are 1,177.60% higher in 2025 versus 1953
[–] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 21 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

I'm sorry. "as a college student", "72 yrs ago". You guys really need to cap the age at which a person is allowed to make decisions that impact the lives of millions of people. Jeez, at least make cognitive testing mandatory.

[–] fort_burp@feddit.nl 11 points 19 hours ago

Mf is really over 90 y.o. I had to check his wikipedia page 😱

[–] vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 hours ago
[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 8 points 19 hours ago

"And we got free lead in it too!"

[–] BoycottTwitter@lemmy.zip 14 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

That's because our taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize this obsolete form of energy. We should be focusing on energy of the future instead of energy of the past.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 8 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

"the government shouldn't be giving people things" is the dumb argument I hear so often.

Every gallon of gas, pound of beef, gallon of milk, and such have been subsidized by the government. They just ignore/don't realize it.

[–] BoycottTwitter@lemmy.zip 3 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

It's not that I'm opposed to all forms of giving people things. It's just that I would rather we help give people good things like solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, free or low cost bus fair. Things that will move our country forward instead of backwards.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 105 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Chuck Grassley is 92 years old.

He was college age from 1951-ish to 1954-ish.

Gas prices were $0.27 to $0.29 a gallon back then.

https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-741-august-20-2012-historical-gasoline-prices-1929-2011

Adjusted for inflation, that's $3.37 to $3.49 today...

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

Buuuuut... Another way of looking at it...

The minimum wage in the early 1950s was $0.75/hr.

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart

So a gallon of gas was between 36% and 39% of an hours worth of minimum wage work.

The current minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. A gallon of gas at the current average of $2.847 is 39% of an hours worth of minimum wage work.

https://gasprices.aaa.com/

[–] LePoisson@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well ... fuck, I just got done grabbing the BLS inflation calculation for .25 from 1973 and that's $3.05 today but your post is just already here making me feel silly for even thinking about commenting.

Cool stats though, it's interesting to see how the cost has more or less stayed in line with inflation. I think that's what you'd expect to see with most commodities from that time to now, but I'm also an idiot who got like a C in my macroeconomics class so I don't really know.

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

… if only the most expensive things stayed the same ratio - like mortgage/rent, health insurance, retirement, college. Minimum wage is $7.25, rent costs $1.5k. Got an A in macro, but only a B in micro. I wonder what happened…

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

Those things have gotten more expensive and I don’t want to sound like I’m arguing just want to say that’s always been a problem with calculating inflation. Like I read about Jesus being betrayed for six preices of silver or something and that far back it’s really hard to say how much that’s “worth” comparable to today.

But I never been to one of those fancy adult schools “snaps suspenders” so what do I know.

[–] LePoisson@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Yeah it's wild how fucked our economy is.

The divorce of worker productivity from worker pay leading to the huge wealth gap we see today is really bad for everyone but the 1%.

[–] kossa@feddit.org 20 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Almost as if inflation is a function of energy prices, as everything we consume requires energy to produce and transport.

[–] Miaou@jlai.lu 4 points 22 hours ago

You mean the opposite? Inflation is strictly a conscious, economical decision.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago

It couldn't possibly be that the greediest of corporations in the world are those in the energy trust feeding its destruction!

[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

Actually kinda cool stats.

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 0 points 12 hours ago
[–] Burninator05@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

What if he can math but knows his constituents can't or won't.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 168 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Even if his math is correct, it’s a stupid point cause our incomes haven’t matched inflation and that’s all that really matters.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 58 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Our incomes should have matched productivity to get ahead. Matching inflation is just treading water.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago

We drowning

[–] Honse@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

This is a great talking point and I'm stealing it

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[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 132 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Why the fuck is a 92 year old man still actively holding office?

And what insane political system would allow this to happen?

This is elder abuse!

[–] Shamber@lemmy.world 79 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

You mean the elderly is abusing us, I totally agree

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Meanwhile everything else is much more expensive today.

Gas could double in price and it would still be the least of my concerns.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

But his math is correct?

¢25 in 1953, 72 years ago, is $3.03 when adjusted for inflation according to US Inflation Calculator.

And the current gas price is $2.4 per gallon in Iowa where he is from. (Not sure where he went to college but whatever.)

It's ¢60 cheaper per gallon now, when adjusted for inflation.

If he's right about the price he paid, he's also right about it being cheaper now.

Surely Trump didn't help during all these 72 years but the math is correct, even if the logic is flawed.

[–] MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (3 children)

It sure as hell ain't $2.4 a gallon here.

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[–] Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] KittyCat@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Surprisingly it come out more or less equivalent, around 39% of an hour at minimum wage

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[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If elected, I'll make gas even more expensive, and spend the tax revenue on bus/train infrastructure.

[–] absentbird@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Shut up and take my vote!

[–] CannedYeet@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

Guys, why aren't you giving Trump credit for 72 years of progress in petroleum engineering and decades of wars for oil?

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

If my napkin math is right*, he was in college between 1951 and 1956; with gas ranging from .24 to .27 dollars a gallon.

Adjusting for inflation that’s be about $2.40.

Sunday I paid 2.90 at Costco. It seems he’s full of shit.

(My napkin math is notorious for breaking the laws of physics. Best do your own… or else we might end up dividing by zero.)

[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For some bizarre reason I was able to get gas at $2.05 on Monday.

The next day it was back to $2.92.

Must have been a weird price war between a handful of stations that day.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Or someone messed up programming the machine.

But still, that’s a score.

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[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

25 years ago, I regularly filled my tank for $1/gallon. Gas prices have more than quadrupled in 25 years.

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

To be fair, it's also become more difficult to get oil, relying on methods such as fracking. But also, OPEC.

[–] Handsomest_Robot@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (5 children)

It's apparently $3 adjusted for inflation.

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 35 points 1 day ago

Problem is our wages have not adjusted for inflation

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[–] accideath@feddit.org 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Adjusted for inflation from '53 to today that’s like $3 per gallon. Converted to metrics I understand that’s like 0,68€ a liter. That’s that‘s about a third of what you pay in Germany these days (incl. tax) on a bad day. (Typically around 1,80€/l)

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

My version of 'adjusted for inflation' is to look at what a paycheck could cover.

In 1960, the minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the average US home was $11,000.00 A high school graduate could own their own home. In those days, $1 million would buy you two fine homes, a fleet of cars, and enough left over to live off the income.

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[–] Godric@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Turns out OP can't math hahaha

[–] SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

And yet the media just repeats this bullshit until most low-info Americans think it's the truth.

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