From George Will's latest column On Rising Gas Prices, "They come with metronomic regularity, these media stories about "soaring" gasoline prices...Today, as the price of a gallon of regular "soars" almost to where it was (measured in constant dollars) in 1982, the "news" is: "Drivers Offer a Collective Ho-Hum as Gasoline Prices Soar'' (The New York Times, last Friday). People are not changing their behavior because the real, inflation-adjusted cost of that behavior has not changed significantly.
MP: See the chart above of real, inflation-adjusted annual retail gas prices from 1919 to 2007. Gas prices today (2007 average of $2.50 per gallon) are still about 20% below the peak in 1981-1982, and below the gas prices of the 1920s (average of $2.72) and 1930s (average of $2.73).
Will also points out that: In the 20 years from 1987 to 2006, Exxon Mobil invested more ($279 billion) than it earned in profits ($266 billion).
Big Oil's profits are much smaller than Big Government's revenue from gasoline consumption. Oil companies make about 13 cents in profit on a gallon of gas. Government makes much more. The federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. Mrs. Clinton's New York collects 42.4 cents a gallon. Forty-nine states -- all but Alaska -- make more than the oil companies do on every gallon.
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