No kidding, 30 cent a gallon gas in California was last seen around 1973 or
so!

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Old Volks Home <oldvolkshome@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Geez I wish I knew where this 3 or 4 hunnert dollar Blue Cross plan
> is....My
> current single guy rate is $600/mo and on May 1, it jumps to $825/mo
> (Double-Whammy, I turned the double nickel a couple of weeks ago).
>
> 30 cents for gas 20 years ago?  Maybe 35 years ago, but 20 years ago it
> was
> around 65-75 cents a gallon here in SoCal (I'll have to check my old log
> book for the 67 21 Window Deluxe I drove around then to be sure).
>
> It might be Frydae, but it's no joke in my pocketbook, which is rather
> empty
> these days ;-)
> --
> Jim Thompson
> 84 GL 1.9 "Gloria"
> 84 Westfalia 2.1 "Ole Putt"
> 73 K Ghia Coupe "Denise"
> 72 411 Station Wagon "Pug"
> oldvolkshome@gmail.com
> http://www.oldvolkshome.com
> ***********************************
> On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Don Hanson <dhanson@gorge.net> wrote:
>
> > "Used to be, an out of work hippy could buy a van and travel to his
> hearts
> > content"?
> >
> >  Well yah, maybe.  Not now, though.  In fact, even a working hippy has a
> > very difficult time buying or traveling in a van now, when gas is about
> >  13
> > times as expensive as 20 years ago...(very late "Hippy-era")  Let's look
> a
> > it:  Gas will soon hit $4.00 yet a journeyman carpenter still makes what
> > he
> > did 20 years ago.  Don't ask me how I know this for sure, but according
> to
> > an average wage search on Google, it IS true, and according to the money
> I
> > make, again, true.   I am still one of them working hippies, I guess..
> $16
> > an hr back in the 80s and about $18 now, if you can find a house to work
> > on...
> >  Yet 20 years ago a gallon of gas was around $.30  Thirty...cents!  So
> you
> > could fill your van for about $4.80...or about the cost we'll soon be
> > paying
> > for ONE gallon of fuel..  So now a days, they want about $3-4 hundred
> > bucks
> > a month for health care.  That was my single guy rate with Blue Cross
> > recently....that is  ~ one week's wage.  Fill the van to drag your tools
> > to
> > the job once a week..another weeks wage each month..Forget a car or a
> > house
> > payment, because tools wear out, and of course, you gotta plan for when
> > the
> > current job is done and you have to find another somewhere.  Now, if
> > sumpin
> > goes wrong on the van, or you drop your skilsaw off the roof and it
> > breaks.....you better go get a night job..flipping burgers at Mickey D's
> > or
> > something..Funny, the van I drive now is over 30 years old, but back in
> > the
> > real "hippy days," I could afford one that was only 15 years old on a
> >  very
> > very part time carpenters wage...Hmmm...And if I wanted a Go Westy van,
> at
> > my current wage it would take me about........8 years to earn enough to
> > pay
> > for it...Shoot, If only I'd a known...I could have started saving back
> in
> > the 80s to buy an....80-sumpthin Westy 35 years later...
> >  You suppose, if there were still such a thing as journeyman tradesmen,
> > that some of the "new" middle class, like the Dot-com workers, or some
> > saving and loan officers, or...what other jobs have been 'created in the
> > US
> > lately?.....would be willing to pay an equivalent wage to what we got
> back
> > when gas was cheaper and going to the doc cost about $50 a
> visit?...Let's
> > see, if I wanted to 'stay even' with the increase in costs for stuff
> like
> > gas, insurance, health care, etc I would need to up my rates about 13
> > times,
> > or charge a fair wage of ....oh, about $325 per hour.  I just read on
> the
> > web news where the two guys who started Google just made around 2
> Billion
> > per hour a few days back..so I guess that would be reasonable...$325 per
> > hour for a carpenter who's been in the trade for 30 years...
> >  Hee hee, fat f---ing chance..We now have 'guest workers' who'll
> > 'assemble'
> > a house for $7.20 an hour..
> >  Fryeday.. so excuse the joking post..
> >  Don Hanson
>

--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
Crescent Beach, BC
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27