Monday, February 27, 2012
Some perspective on the relative cost of gas
As reports on the rising cost of gas once again capture news headlines and ignite debate, it's a good time to take a closer look at gas price relative to other products in common use. Even if prices reach $4 a gallon, gas is a bargain compared to most other consumer products. See the graphic below for a powerful visual. What other products do you think it would be fun or interesting to compare?
Hat tip to The Big Picture and Flowing Data.
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That is interesting, but how often do you use a gallon of Liquid Paper and thank God that our cars don't run on it! How long would it take you to use a gallon of Liquid paper. Need to compare it also based on usage too, even though gas is $4.00 a gallon you use several gallons a day driving, liquid paper is only used a brush stroke at a time. People would pay more for something of guality like Olive oil that is not used up in a single use or as fast as gas.
ReplyDeleteI think the point here is that people willingly pay more per gallon for a bottle of water than for gasoline, and don’t think twice about pouring out the bottom of the bottle. The water comes from an easily accessible source and goes straight into an inexpensive container (made from petroleum feedstock) for marketing. Gasoline on the other hand comes from oil that has to be discovered (think deep water), produced, transported, refined, transported again and then sold at a gas station. Oil companies can still make money of course because of the large volumes involved, and as you say we feel the pain of rising gas prices because of the volume of gas that we use. It still seems a little odd that nobody complains about the cost of many products that are much less expensive to make.
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