Real Gas Price -- $1,400 per Gallon, or Two Weeks Hard Labor

[valuesystem]

The price of gasoline, or rather, the value of gasoline, is much higher than most people imagine. Over the years, people have become accustomed to paying $1, $2, $3 or perhaps $4 per gallon. In reality, the value gasoline is three orders of magnitude higher, somewhere north of $1,400.00 per gallon

Comments

Industrial Efficiency

[anonymous]

Hello

Re: Industrial Efficiency

[valuesystem]

...until we lose it... yes, I'm afraid that might happen. Concentrated energy from ancient sunlight (petroleum and coal) are such fabulous energy sources, that few people seem to take the time to think about how valueable they are. I do. I think about it everytime I drive. It makes me a bit sad, considering some of the errands I run, and the frequency.

I am currently seriously considering getting a scooter (about $1,000; that should get over 100 miles per gallon), for doing errands to the four towns that are all within 15 miles of my home, and getting to work on nice days.

Re: Industrial Efficiency

[anonymous]

if so, please consider a good health and disability insurance, and "final expences" insurance might be wirth a look. It'd be a shame if such an interesting specimen will die on the street because of short vision.

Re: Industrial Efficiency

[valuesystem]

Thank you for the cryptic answer.

I haven't bought the scooter yet, but needless to say, if I do buy one, I'll be beyond careful with it.

In any event, life is a temporary condition for all, and whether it is a scooter or a BMW, things happen, so its best to do what good we can with the time we have.

[anonymous]

You are forgetting two fundamentally important considerations

Firstly, you cannot compare 28000 calories of food to a gallon of gas because this assumes that humans have the same efficiency as a fuel combustion engine which is not nearly the case.. a car uses roughly 15% of the energy in the gas to propel the car while the rest is lost as heat. humans convert the energy in food much more efficiently but the food itself needs an enormous amount of fossil fuels per calorie produced without even counting the energy cost of refining the gasoline from crude oil.

Secondly, you have to take into account the fact that this is non-renewable (at least not at the rate we are consuming it) since it takes millennia to produce this crude oil.. that would have been a much more interesting calculation.

I doubt anyone can come close to an accurate calculation of the value of fuel, And $ values are not worth much seeing that they float on a fossil-fuel dependent economy.

[valuesystem]

In a more recent post, I've been looking at this issue with dollar values, and more specifically, if there is a universal way to measure money, or more specifically, credit.