Compared to 1973, when the average passenger car got only 13.4 m.p.g., fuel efficiency increased to 22.9 m.p.g. by 2005, a 71% increase in efficiency in a 32-year period!
Despite today's high oil and gas prices, we've had it pretty good for a long, long time, with a long-run historical, 90-year trend of a decline in real gas prices.
The chart above (click to enlarge) shows the cost of 1,000 gallons of gas at the retail price in each year from 1919 to 2007 using historical gas price data from the EIA, as a percent of GDP per capita in those years
from Carpe Diem
It is not as paid as it seems. Put in a historical perspective, it is actually good.
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