Lo and behold, petrol prices in the US are set to rise on Wednesday as stated on the Rand Today. No doubt the UK prices are continuously following suit. There is no shortage of blogs of people complaining about this, i.e. here.
From my own research and conversations with my dear old Grandparents this is hardly a new phenomenon.
In the 1950s the average weekly wage was £7.08 (equivalent of £499 p/w today) and the average price for a litre of fuel was roughly 10.5p. Today, the average weekly wage is £549.80 per week and the average price for a litre of petrol is hovering somewhere around the 104.76p mark and 109.57p mark for diesel.
This means that in 1950, the average cost of a litre accounted for 1.3% of a week’s wages, today we forfeit merely 0.19% of our weekly budget for a litre of the Middle East’s finest.
It is true that there were not nearly as many cars on the road back then and not as many people drove but my Grandparents were by no means well off and they still found the funds to keep a car on the road.
Les Grandpéres ont toujours tort? Not really, people want as much as they can get for as little as they can get it for and the lost British art of not grumbling should really apply.
We’re a lot better off than we ever have been.
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