what it USED to cost to heat your home (circa 1902)

[smirnov3]

I found this article in the NY Times archive. it's about an MIT scientist researching a substitute for heating with coal.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D00E6DA1F39E733A2575AC2A9649D946397D6CF

check out the prices: $10 per cord for wood, $0.12 per gallon for oil

 

[swestall]

MY, how the times change. It is easy to see how we got to Oil and Wood. The relationship between these items certainly has changed in 100+ years, hasn't it?
Make no mention of the consistency of heat with wood.

 

[Jake]

I'd think 10 bucks is a ton of money in 1902. I'd guess that the wages were about 2 bucks a day.

 

[webbie]

I paid 15 cents a gallon for heating oil - in 1971!

Wages in certain places - deep south, for instance, were $1 a day as late as the 1930's, so you can imagine how hard it was to make it!

 

[TMonter]

Average cord of Tamarack here is going for $200

Adjusted for inflation that's about $8.90 in 1903 Dollars

At $3.60 a gallon, heating oil in 1903 dollars would be about $0.16

Not bad considering all of the taxes applied to oil these days that didn't exist back then. If you remove taxes oil is cheaper now than then.

In real terms prices have dropped slightly.

 

[BrotherBart]

And the Model T Ford got 25 MPG.

 

[begreen]

I can remember filling up the car in Texas with gas at 12 cents per gallon, and this was 1970.

As to taxes, about 90% of all the taxes we now pay were not in existence back in 1902.

 

[lazarpa]

Wow that would be nice,

Right now its $150 a cord and topping at $3.40g for heating oil

 

[Backwoods Savage]

First time I had to buy fuel oil we paid $.10 per gallon

Cheapest I ever bought gas was $.079. That's not 79 cents folks, that is 7.9 cents per gallon!

I also remember working for a dollar an hour...and even less at times! My first job was milking the neighbor's cows and cleaning the barn during the winter. Pay was $3.00 per week. Yes, times have changed.

 

[smirnov3]

Average cord of Tamarack here is going for $200

Adjusted for inflation that's about $8.90 in 1903 Dollars

At $3.60 a gallon, heating oil in 1903 dollars would be about $0.16

Not bad considering all of the taxes applied to oil these days that didn't exist back then. If you remove taxes oil is cheaper now than then.

In real terms prices have dropped slightly.

consumers pay taxes on the oil they buy.

oil producers get tax brakes to keep prices low.

does one balance out the other? Who knows.
The oil buisness is a very opaque, very confusing game, especially when you add in that oil prices are inflated about a $1 per gallon due to speculation (ie investors gambling that the price will go up. Since EVERYBODY is convinced that the price will rise, it does)

 

[webbie]

Some things go up, others go down!

In 1970, when I paid 15 cents for heating oil, the minimum wage was about $1.50 an hour, meaning an hour bought 10 gallons of heating oil! Or four gallons of gasoline. When we got that bill for $14.99 (for 100 gallons, the minimum fillup), we split it three ways among the guys sharing the house. I remember that being a big dent in my budget!

Today, the same worker (minimum or close) would be able to buy only 2 gallons of either heating oil or gas.

A car cost about $3,000, now the same car (a much better car, of course) would cost $20,000, so that is not too bad - a factor of 7 (equiv to $10.50 an hour min wage)

Houses are up about 8 to 10x in most areas from that time (1967-1970).

I guess Henry Ford was really a revolutionary when he raised wages to $5 a day....wow, that was 5 to 10x what folks in other parts of the country were making! It was only possible with mass production and economy of scale.

 

[bcnu]

so, most everything is relative if we're old (enough to remember)

 

[webbie]

Or not too old to forget!
:coolsmirk: