dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (04/02/84)
The recent Toronto gas wars (which are rumoured to be coming to an
end today) have brought prices down from 48.8 cents as the standard
for regular, to 30-32 cents.
What I find interesting is that the deep discount due to the gas wars
ALMOST brings us to the level to which the prices rose when the Conservatives
brought in the budget which defeated them - the 18c/gallon increase was
4 c/litre, and took prices "WAY" up to 28 cents.
And the Liberals got elected on their opposition to that!
Dave Sherman
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{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!davepeterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (04/03/84)
C'mon, Dave, you know better than to compare 1979 prices with 1984 prices without adjusting for inflation. p. rowley, U. Toronto
dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (04/03/84)
Really, Peter, it takes a lot of inflation to go from 23.5 to 48.8
cents in four years. Something more than "6 and 5", I suspect.
Dave Sherman
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{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!daveduncan@utecfc.UUCP (Duncan Poole) (04/03/84)
The Conservative budget which proposed the hike in gas prices
may have been unpopular (all budgets are), but it seems to me that the
downfall of the Conservative government at that time was due to their
inablility to handle a minority government.
Duncan Poole
{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!utecfa!utecfc!duncanpeterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (04/03/84)
True, Dave, that's more than inflation. Inflation was pretty high during some of those years (>10%), but I think the inflated price of 23.5 cents in '79 works out to less than 35 cents now. If I remember correctly, though, the debate over the budget was not so much the amount of the increase, but how long it would take to phase in. Stretching out the rise to closer-to-world prices to diminish its inflationary effect seems like a good, prudent, course and may well have saved some jobs. This is a good example of Liberal pragmatism as opposed to Tory ideologism (we'll raise the prices to what they SHOULD be, by gosh-- it'll be GOOD for them). p. rowley, U. Toronto (how long can we continue to use the same first-sentence structure?)
mason@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Mason) (04/04/84)
But if the price had come in one lump sum, it might have a real, signifiicant
impact on people's gas consumption. By phasing it in people just grumbled
and continued to buy big gas guzzlers. I suspect consumption has decreased,
but not as much as it would have if the price had increased by 60% one night.
.../Dave Mason
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!utcsrgv!mason Dave Mason, U. Toronto CSRG
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