You're Freaking Out About Gas. The Data Says Calm Down

Dear {{full_name}},

Everyone's losing their minds at the pump right now.

Social media is on fire. Your neighbor won't shut up about it. Politicians are tripping over themselves to assign blame. And somewhere, a cable news anchor is standing in front of a gas station with a very concerned look on their face.

Here's what none of them will tell you: you don't know what expensive gas actually looks like.

I pulled 77 years of gas price data — every year from 1950 to right now — and adjusted every single number for inflation. Because nominal prices are meaningless. A dollar in 1950 isn't a dollar today, and anyone comparing pump prices without adjusting for that is either innumerate or lying to you.

What the data actually shows:

The 1960s were the cheapest gas in American history — over 20% cheaper than 1950 in real dollars. Then came 1980. The Iran-Iraq War pushed gas to the equivalent of $5.09 in today's money. Nobody alive remembers that being the end of civilization. Then 2008 hit — $5.62 in today's dollars. The actual all-time record. We survived that too.

Today? $4.06 a gallon. A spike, yes. A crisis? Please.

And here's the part that really should end the conversation: Americans pay less for gas than virtually every other developed nation on earth. The Dutch are paying the equivalent of over $8 a gallon. The Danes aren't far behind. The British, the Germans, the French — all paying dramatically more than you are, right now, today, while you complain on Facebook.

We are the wealthiest nation in the history of human civilization. We have the largest economy, the highest standard of living for a nation our size, and we pay the lowest gas prices of any major developed country in the world.

We have always eventually come back down. We are coming back down right now — prices dropped again this week as the Iran peace deal takes shape.

The people freaking out about gas prices aren't wrong that prices went up.

They're wrong about what it means.

It means geopolitics happened. It means markets moved. It means the same thing that's happened a dozen times since 1950, and every single time, the American economy absorbed it, adapted, and kept moving.

Stop watching vertical crisis content designed to make you feel panicked so you'll watch the next one.

The lion isn't at the door.

It never was.