I'd like to know what everyone thinks of the price of gas and oil considering our wages haven't increased?

I think it is outrageous. How do the elderly people make it ? The ones who are on fixed income, who cant hardly pay for their medications,bills,food etc.

We go to work to make a living, but by the time we fill our tanks up, we are near about broke again!!

It's crazy !

I work on Alaska'a North Slope oil production facility in a support role (I work in the kitchen) and wages for my line of work, as well as many others on the Slope, have FALLEN in the last twenty years. That's right: the price of a barrel of crude is 4 times what it was 20 years ago, and the oil companies are making obscene profits, and the wages for the people actually involved in producing the oil or supporting those who do this work have fallen. How about that?

The Oil Companies are making a killing.

Is it just co-incidence that George Bush was in the Texas Oil Business and has a lot of friends among the Gasoline Producers and the Oil Countries like Saudi Arabia.

I read that Alan Greenspan said part of the reason the gas prices are so high is because of a shortage of refineries.... which kindof pisses me off considering my hometown's main industry was oil refining and the refineries there were shut down years ago making hard working Americans lose their jobs. Half the town was employed by the refineries and when they closed they had to leave to find work. The only thing my hometown is known for now is Meth labs and herion and cocaine rings.

1968 -- minimum wage

Feb 1, 1968: $1.60 & $1.15 (the lower figure $1.15 was due to one of many amendments to the 1938 federal ninimum wage act, this one being the result of the 1966 amendment which allowed many large employers such as grocery chains, restaurants, etc to pay only $1.15.

Source: http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/chart.htm

1968 minimum wage adjusted for inflation would be the highest peak min wage ever. In 2005 dollars, the 1968 $1.60 min wage would be $9.12.

Source: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth484/minwage.ht...

1968: average cost of a gallon of gas depending on state tax etc between $0.20 and $0.33 USD per gallon. Sources: various and my memory.

HOWEVER -- in 2004 dollars, adjusted for inflation, it can be argued that gas is cheaper now than it was then.

Still, if we compare the straight multiplication ratio of the changes in minimum wage and gas prices from 1968 through June 2006, we see that gas is nearly ten times the 1968 price if we use $0.30 as the 1968 average and $2.90 as the 2006 average. ($2.90/$0.30 = 9.66).

Minimum wage increased only 3.2 times the 1968 min wage ($5.15/$1.60 = 3.2.)

SO, UNFORTUNATELY, minimum wage hasn't been adjusted!!!

I picked 1968 because of two reasons. One, it was the "transition" year between the previous decades of stable price/stable economy and the inflation years which followed. Two, I worked in a chain burger joint, and I was paid $1.15 per hour. Gas in my town was usually around $0.25 per gallon, often less during price wars.

In Chicago SE suburbs they used to be in the upper $1 range two years ago. Ever since the increase, now it's $3 (lucky if can anything barely under that).

I think that's BULL----!

the wages in the oil pacth go up every october so do what i did and get a job on a drilling rig

If prices continue to rise, people will change their driving habits -- like walk more or ride the bus -- and maybe stop buying so many big SUVs and duallies.

Well WTF? I think it is just great. I like spending half of my paycheck to put into my gas tank so I can get to work and the grocery store. Doesn't everyone? .......Hello? anyone home?