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Comment by 0des | Hacker News Reader

This is not permanent.

I'll wager the base is $6 after this. I'm currently paying $7 because I'm in CA and I have to buy Diesel after some drunk person totaled my non-truck.

If this is the base, it'll just be a form of inflation and get lost pretty soon. Currently 1 hr of fast food labor buys you 2 gallons of gas. That's probably pretty close to what it was in 1996 also.

> That's probably pretty close to what it was in 1996 also.

No, this is wrong. Minimum wage in 1996 was around 5$ Per hour and gas was below 1$ per gallon.

Gas was not below $1 a gallon in 1996. Especially not in California. Also, cars weren't getting the mpg they are now. Cost per mile relative to minimum wage probably isn't that far off.. which you can probably see from data that basically everyone is driving as much as ever.. because other than mental sticker shock, it's still fine.

Literally $1.10 (and often less) at the station down the street from my home in San Jose. My car had roughly the same mileage as my 2011 car that a drunk person recently destroyed.

Right now, even if min wage is what, $15, a gallon is $6, so I don't understand what you are saying.

If you look at the last 20 years, then the current $100/barrel seems to be the "new normal" ? (Up from ~$25/barrel for the 2nd half of the 20th century.)

Now, currently it's more the lack of refining capacity that seems to be pushing fuel prices up, the crack spread is up to $50/barrel !!

It's not permanent, but it probably will happen again. Gas prices are volatile.

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