I've only got more confused.
The calculator at that link gives gives the same number:
View attachment 594706
But the gas price calculator says that the cost would be $3.62 in 2024 (cumulative rate of inflation 274%). But it also reports $4.20 in 2022 (cumulative rate of inflation = 351.6%). Does that mean prices have dropped in the last year and a half? Did I miss the great deflation of 2023?
I'm a History Major, not a Statistics Major...but something there is unconvincing.
There are several ways to calculate inflation. And focusing on any one commodity is really not as helpful as you'd like. Most people have a finite income... the money they can buy things with. I can decide to buy food, or gas, or ammo, or... But it's like this: If I had one dollar to spend in 1986, what could I buy with that? Well, with gas at 0.929, I could buy a gallon of gas and have change left over. Or, I could buy something else, and not have any left over. What chunk of my income is based on "needs", and what is "disposable"?
But with inflation, I would need $2.83 to have the same value as that 1986 dollar (using the CPI Calculator), and one thing I know: Today, $2.83 isn't buying me a gallon of gas, let alone leaving me change.
Oh, and before anyone asks, I'm focusing on 1986 for a reason. In the summer of 1986, I was in exile on a small island off the coast of South Carolina, and had very limited information of what was happening in the world around me. I remember gas being a LOT cheaper in August than it was in May. I distinctly remember my shock when I saw the price of gas. I worked at a full service gas station the summer prior, so those prices were pretty firm in my mind. Do you want to talk about Presidents directly influencing supply? Try re-flagging some Kuwaiti tankers. But I digress. The point is, I remember that price drop, because it was so shocking to me at the time. 0.93 might have been the average for the year, but I distinctly remember the cost being $0.679 at one point. Suddenly, I could fill up the gas tank, and have some money left over for a soda. Or was it ammo?