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I've just had my 80th birthday, and I've been reflecting on some of the changes I've seen. When I started driving I could ask for 4 gallons of petrol ( there weren't any serve yourself pumps then), and I could give the attendant £1, and say keep the change. $ gallons today will cost over £36, and I have to serve myself. They keep saying inflation is low, but that doesn't seem low to me. Right now the producer price ines is up over 36%, and that is a more realistic indicator than the retail price index bandied about by the government.

It really does seem to be a way for the super-elite with their hereditary wealth to increase their asset value at the expense of the bulk of the population.

Happy birthday and I wish you a long life full of happiness.
Oil is not an ideal commodity to measure inflation, as it is related to supply and demand, and political fluctuations affect the price of oil more than inflation, and the chart below can give you a better concept of how political fluctuations affect the price.


Recently, there have been many suppliers of oil, and if political problems are resolved, for example in Venezuela and Libya, oil prices will fall sharply.

Happy 80th!

From what I can tell, the main thing to have risen is fuel and oil (which in number seems like it's up 100%) - your van probably makes you notice this a lot and so your comparison might even be higher than the 35%.

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Regarding this being a way to pass money to the elite, that does look like the case. Before it was supply and demand - but both of those likely stayed the same over the longer term for oil (or with just slightly more demand) but not by 50-100%. Perhaps companies are realising their time with oil might be coming to an end and are going to slowly push the prices higher - electric cars and vans are cheaper to power but more expensive to make and produce (and electricity is high cost now too - I'd guess that's a similar reason since 50%+ of the UK and EU's energy supply comes from renewables).

Tldr: it looks like an outcome of extreme deregulation somewhere imo.

Happy 80th Birthday! 🎉 :D :o I never expected someone with that age are still into bitcoin, I thought most of the holders are from the age group of 18-50 years old.

Anyways, it looks like almost all things have rise in prices, not only petrol. Within the years, a lot of things have change and inflation have affected almost any type of commodities out there.

Happy 80th birthday! Wish you the best.

I bought my first car in 2017, I was 19-20 years old, so I'm pretty fresh at driving. Petrol was still considered expensive back then, costing an average of €1.50/liter for 95 unleaded petrol. It only became cheaper during the first quarantine due to Covid-19, reaching €1.30/liter.

Currently the average price in my area is €2.45/liter, filling up my car would cost more than €110, while the max I'd spent the past years would be €50 - €70.

First of all I wish you a happy birthday, may you always be in happiness and health, and may we still be able to price Bitcoin up to $100K.

The government will always cover up its weaknesses for various reasons so that inflation will improve and decrease. But in the field, we as citizens experience rejection, where every retail sale or subsidized proves the fact that gasoline prices have never dropped. So who has absolute truth when our daily fuel forces us to spend huge sums of money? At least we know that the way the super-elite invests wealth is by enriching their offspring, not giving us cheap prices.

Happy birthday i wish you the best the world has to offer.
Prices has been up since 2020. The change in price happened gradually changing the total cost of commodities but so far no government will want to admit their effort lead to inflation. Getting a car in this era is quite expensive and the cost of maintenance is discouraging. petrol cost is like a sector of the economy that got its price hiked. This is like a general challenge even down to food stuffs.

Happy birthday! What a wonderful age and you are an active person! I wish it continued like this for many more years! You have the opportunity to compare the standard of living over a long period of time. This is very interesting to watch. Currently, prices have increased not only for gasoline. Prices have changed and continue to change for many things. I went to my car service and was unpleasantly surprised that there, too, the price for car maintenance has changed.

Cheapest price I paid for gas was about 39 us cents per gallon.

recently paid $ 5.09 usd per gallon

Happy 80th Birthday! 🎉 Perhaps the United Kingdom and many European countries did not experience a crisis like this, except for a similar crisis that occurred in the year 1971 when oil was cut off from most countries, but at that time there was no dependence on it as is happening now.

The world is changing fast and I hope the worst is over and the dark days are in the past, even though reality belies that.

80 years - my congratulations, from the bottom of my heart! :)

What you described, I would not associate with the "world government" or the elites. This is a completely understandable situation.
Oil. Today, while there is a high demand for it, and there is a serious dependence of both consumers and suppliers, it is often a "hostage of the situation" or becomes a "victim" of some world events. This is exactly the situation today, but it will also calm down
The growth in value or "cheapening of money" is also a natural process. First, most economies have an inflationary model of the financial system. To be honest, I find it difficult even to give an example of whether there are countries with a deflationary model. Most likely not, because it's not good for the economy. Those. the gradual cheapening of money is a manageable process.

Happy 80th birthday, Jet!
Whenever really the oil price hikes, everything is affected. I believe that this won't be staying at the top forever and there will be also the decrease for its price over time. We just don't know when exactly that will come but that's what I want to believe and that's the same as the markets. The factor with its continuous increase is due to the war, so, I wish that it'll end soon so that we all going to benefit once its down and decreases in price.

Happy 80th Jet cash, amazing to see you at this age is a crypto-currency enthusiast, long life in happiness i wish you.
Well I can say that it isn’t only the price of fuel that has seen such changes from years back, you probably then could go to the grocery with $100 and come back with bags of items, right now with that amount you would be coming back with lesser amount of item, in terms of the value of money, it has reduce if you would compare it to decades ago, and from statistics it may even get worse.

Belated Birthday Wishes Jet Cash. ( 80th )

Knowing too well that change is constant, I hope you adapt.
You'll live hundred.

Happy birthday!


I don't know who says it's low, but they are blatantly lying. Inflation started to rise before the war due to massive printing and energy policies, and, with the war on, it has been getting worse. It is a good way to impoverish the general population, while rich people will not have problems because they have assets that beat inflation.

Happy Birthday!  
you rarely posts these days. companies today are laying off employees even the crypto companies. despite the profit they make, gasoline stations may also be laying off.

yes its another wealth distribution that makes the poor poorer and rich to filthy richer.
prices going to the ceiling is not yet over, it could break the roof to the moon and investing  in petro could  very well save us from this bear market.

Congratulations on your 80th birthday! You represent a great story, and you have gone through many ups and downs in the economy of your country. I imagine your disappointment with today's prices. Everyone always wants their children and grandchildren to live a better life than the one they lived. But what we are seeing now seems to be different. All older people like to say that it used to be better. And today I directly agree with you, although I recently argued with my parents. Even if only bad news is predicted today, nevertheless, we would like to hope that our authorities will be smart enough to prevent even higher inflation.

I congratulate you and say happy blated birthday to you. Hope you had a nice party to go with it ?


I think that oil is very important factor to measure inflation and in fact it contributes to the level of inflation whether it is high or low. Naturally if the price of oil climbs up it is going to have direct effect on the price of commodities in the market because the cost of transportation will be factored into the product. This means the commodities will be higher in price and more money will chase it causing it to increase more, the more it goes higher in price it opens up the gap between the rich and poor causing inflation.

Happy Birthday Jet. I didn't expect you are 80.  :o
Price of petrol that I remember when my Uncle asked me to go buy some and put in an empty gallon was like $0.25 per liter if I remember it right. Somewhere at that range.
This ain't over, other necessities are also going to be expensive as they will put the travel cost and the gas usage to each item. It will be worst than tax because you won't see it.

Belated happy birthday Jet, I am impressed that at the age of 80 you are using computer like a pro.
Of Course - we miss all the past time. They were always good. But this inflation is killing everyone and God knows what we have to face in the days to come.

For so many years of life, you must have seen many changes, including positive ones, and not just the rise in the price of petrol. Have you tried to calculate the price of petrol in bitcoin now and when you got a bitcoin for the first time? It would be interesting to know the comparison with the £. I think it's no secret to anyone that the traditional financial system is impossible without inflation, and therefore, one should not be surprised at the rise in the price of goods like petrol.

Happy birthday bro, wish you live to see 120.

That's what sanctions do, they are like a double edged sword that cuts the wielder too. For example when Venezuela was sanctions years ago many American companies were screwed because they had a lot of long term investment in Venezuela's energy sector (which we have taken over now, hush!). When Iran was sanctioned Europe was screwed because they lost access to one of the biggest energy resources including both gas and oil. When Russia was sanctions Europe was more screwed because they lost access to another one of the biggest energy resources.
Hence the high inflation and the high energy costs.

Seeing your numbers worries me a little though because if a gallon is 4.5 liters then a gallon of petrol here is worth about £0.19 ($0.22) which is a ridiculous difference and we know what happens when there is such a massive gap in two markets: arbitrage or better said smuggling of fuel....

Happy birthday, come in 10 years and tell us the price of those 4 gallons :D I hope you'll still have the nerve to drive these roads with all the forced change the EU is pushing. At least you britons don't have to listen to those eco idiots who wants us all to drive electric cars and have speed limiters built in so that.

I find the price of oil vs price of retail gasoline the most disturbing. Gas would cost us 1/2 of what it does now if not for all the taxes. It doesn't cost much to make it but the government steals what it can and then blames it all on the price of oil, but it doesn't care that taxes grow with the retail price. If you have 50% tax and the gas costs $1 you have to pay 50c. When the retail price doubles you pay $1 in taxes. In the end it's the government's fault you have to pay so much for your gas.

Come to think of it this way, the so called elite are the once being rich and in control of the system from behind but we are seing the result ahead not knowing that our first enemy are the closest people we know or see, no matter how high the price of petrol is they will still have access to buying it because the money to use is not their problem, only the masses complain, what a failed generation assembled together with self interest leaders enslaving people in thier liberty world of freedom.

Many many happy return to the op. The point he has mentioned bring me back to the time when I used to get so much of stuff for one coin of my local currency. But now even the beggar refuse to take one coin. In Fact our currency is devaluing at a vey high rate. God bless us and give us patience and lots and lots of money to cope up with inflation.

Voltaire is legendary for saying:

"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero."

Almost 2,000 years ago the roman denarius suffered from high inflation.

It is possible that human civilization has experienced more than 2,000 years of currency devaluation and inflation.

It may be the inevitable end result of nearly every monetary system that has ever been devised by humanity.

The power to print money may be too much for mortal minds to bear.

We're lucky to have bitcoin which is probably one of few monetary systems devised to resist devaluation and inflation.

Hey there, Jet Cash!!  Happy birthday to you, and I was just thinking about you a few days ago when I made mention of you in a post about forum grammar:


I hadn't checked your post history to see if you were still active (too lazy), but I definitely noticed that I hadn't seen you post in a while.  Good to see you're still around and still a part of bitcointalk.  Are you still living the van life and using whatever wi-fi you can find?

I still wish we lived closer so that we could grab coffee and chat, but I suspect that'll never happen.  But I raise my cup to you anyway and salute you from across the ocean!

Happy birthday Jet - I am 40 years old and I make the comparisons like you do. There was a time when we used to get good meal in $1. But now there is hardly any meal we are able to find in this price. With the improvement and advancement in technology the things are changing like crazy. But hope will all see peace and prosperity.

Happy 80 years, I wish you long life and good health.
I was surprised that one of the forum members has such a long life. Sure, you have great experience and experienced many economic crises. Perhaps the high prices of gasoline are the result of the global energy crisis, especially in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war, but it is certain that it is an indication of inflation as well. The rise in fuel prices leads to high prices Almost every other product, because any commodity needs to be moved from one place to another and when the price of gasoline rises, this will certainly lead to a rise in these goods that are being moved, so it is a good indication of the inflation going on.

Happy 80th birthday boss. That is correct that people in this forum have seen good golden days - when money was valuable - today no amount of money is enough.
We see protests going on in every country. People are raising voices against inflation - high petrol prices and increase taxes. The survival can be only achieved through financial freedom.

It is what it is, and i am pretty sure every country is struggling to keep their inflation levels in check, all of these should have a thing or two to do with Covid-19 sanctions and policies like printing quite a lot of money, it was all going to cause inflation problems, and here we are now, what could be worse is that we prolly may not have seen the worst of inflation as it doesn't look like getting any better. It is a difficult situation for my country at the moment, there is a serious increase in the prices of goods and services making it very difficult for the poor/average to survive.

Well, first of all happy birthday! Head confidently towards 100 and make the most of your time on Earth. We all should do the same.
Inflation is certainly not low especially for consumer goods. I'm not sure if the "super-elite" will benefit at the end from all this. Usually social situations will arise like protests and even civil wars. Wealth can get down pretty easily when you have a lot of wealth. Depends now on how well they geographically distribute their belongings and also their asset allocation but generally harsh economic crisis leads to revolts.

In my opinion, oil is the main reason causing the price increase of other commodities, because petroleum is the main raw material for production and transportation activities. Once the price of petroleum goes up, the costs go up for all other industries.

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@Jet Cash, Happy belated birthday buddy. I am also into crypto for a long time but you are the oldest person I met, the oldest investor I have ever met before, he is over 50 years old and also a passionate person and bitcoin is the only option he owns. Good luck on your bitcoin earning journey.

That’s why back in the days most cars were huge boats with big engines and low power. Most cars back then had a V8 engine and it was something crazy like 6L or so.

Now these days many sedans have engines which are less than 2L. So back then you would drive around wasting gas and wouldn’t care. But now that gas is so expensive you turn it off at the stop light to prevent idling.

It’s crazy how expensive driving has gotten.

Happy birthday there mate! Wishing you more birthdays to come and more stories that you will share on this forum.  ;D

About the topic, it's really shocking how the inflation rate went up fast this year. Taxi and other public transport drivers here in my country are the most affected by the gas hike because most of their profit at the end of the day only goes to the gas for their next day trip. They only manage to bring very small amount of money to their families. As a private vehicle owner, I can't just go somewhere anytime I want unlike before. As much as possible, I maximize the usage of my car like buying groceries and paying bills at the same day to lessen the gas consumption.

Probably they are just trying to force us to buy electric cars.

Happy birthday (80th) celebration Jet cash, with what I'm seeing concerning jet cash, i believe his the oldest forum user by age, because the rest participating here is not up to 80th, i think jet cash deserve to be celebrated generally for every forum user. From the analysis of op, what i noticed is that inflation just keep renewing every annual because things keep changing from the previous conditions to the newly condition.

It's not just gas honestly. Or rather, gas prices tend to push other comodity prices through the roof. However, I need to point out that the prices 50 years ago and  today are hard to compare due to natural inflation. What needs to be adressed is what we can really buy with todays money, and the honest answer is, regarding the basics, unfortunatelly much less than the previous gen could.

Yeah, it certainly did go up. And the sad thing is, not everything went up like that, and some stuff stays the same and that is creating some problems. Like lets say if you had a chance to make a contract with someone for 2 years, and the cost was like lets 100 dollar per week, and then you have been doing that for the past 2 years? Your cost literally could be higher than the price we are in right now.

This is why I highly doubt that it would ever be something similar to this, and I doubt it would ever be valuable enough to say that inflation is equal for everyone, it's not. For example, a friend of mine has a renter, he has a contract with them, and they pay rent 50% lesser than everyone else, why? Because they made the contract before the pandemic started. Unfair if you ask me.

What’s up bud I hope all is well with you and a very happy birthday to you! I love that someone of your age is an active member here on bitcointalk and able to give us such perspective from someone who’s been there and done that longer than most, if not all of us here.

I am surprised to hear they are saying inflation is low where you live. It certainly isn’t here. We are up over 8% right now for what’s a 40 year high. When I was a kid I remember seeing the gas price sign and ready .75 -.80 cents. Now my local gas station ⛽️ is charging around $5.90. Crazy how things have changed in such a short period of time.

Increase the salary, increase the price and the money kept printed by the government so this is a system which used to keep the people in the same status no matter how much hike they get every year. Even I used to fill petrol for 50 or 60 cents don't remember exactly but now. ::)

Thats the issue with the modern age, these 1% club are the producer and director of new era and they are the running movie with their own comfort. The problem is, whoever involved in the operations of big assets like oil production, diamond and gold mines etc are all government plus riches club. They are the base of the cake and we are the cream layer who will keep changing all the time. They do not care about it, they do not suffer from the inflation because they can simply increase the cost of assets and overcome it.

Those who deny this fact are still in dark I believe! Look at the mans journey up here, started with 1 euro and Good lord ending with 36 euros! Definitely inflated economy.

Happy Birthday, Op. I hope you're happy and healthy as you celebrate your birthday. Unfortunately, the inflation rate is continuously increasing each day. Most of us only work to survive. As inflation increases, the wages are still the same. It's now hard to save because our salaries are only enough for the increasing value of our daily necessities. I think we can't control the increasing inflation rate anymore but I also hope that our wages would increase in the future.

A happy 80th birthday to you sir, its indeed soul lifting to know that a person of your age is a user of Bitcoin and also an active member of this great forum, i pray your creator give you grace to live many many more years.

Inflation has pretty much affected everything all over the world, and not just oil, here in Nigeria, it is not different, in 2017, i bought a tricycle for my business at a price of 650, 000 naira, today as i type this comment, tricycle is sold for almost a million naira, and its engine power is no longer as strong as those sold in 2017.
I bought a motor bike last month (check it out here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5405271.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5405271.0)) being june 2022, for a price of 400,000 naira which is equivalent to about $650, a friend of mine bought this same bike for a price 250, 000 naira, which is equivalent to about $400 in the month of February this year 2022.
So it is pretty the same thing everywhere and on everything, not just on oil.

First of all, belated happy b-day!!! Didn't knew you were 80 now dang I thought you're just a teenager based on how you talk. Second of all don't worry as you aren't alone with this issue but the increase in the gas price is one of the hottest issues right now because a lot of us are using it regularly.

In our country, the gas stations here operate entirely differently, unlike to yours and in USA where you can self serve but there is no need for us to tip the gasoline boy because they do have their own salary. Who says inflation is low? The increase in the prices of the goods especially in the gas is one of the indications the the rates go up.

belated Happy Birthday to you Sir, at this time that age is difficult for an individual person to reach, and you are lucky that you have reached that age and it is rare for that age that the person is still strong because there is often a lot of pain. brought, Then do I correctly understand that every gallon of oil in your area is 36 pounds or 36 pounds in 4 gallons? either of the two I could say it is still expensive even you have low inflation there in the area where you are.

The short-term rise in the prices of goods and services are already painfully felt by ordinary consumers. How much more if zoom out and take a much broader look at the price changes over the past decades? It must be a lot more painful. To those like you who have seen and felt it all first hand, things must have changed a lot for the worse.

But I agree with Husires that inflation is just a single aspect in terms of oil price. In my country, there's the excise tax, oil deregulation law and other related policies, weakening peso versus the dollar, oil cartels, and others. Add to these the invasion happening somewhere in Europe and probably some manipulation behind the scenes. These are major factors in terms of the local oil price.

I also want to point out what's happening in Sri Lanka where petrol prices are not only rising to the heavens primarily because of the political turmoil, the sales are even halted for weeks except for vehicles used for essential services.

Belated happy birthday, by the way!

This present time we find ourselves into is a situation whereby to earn a living becomes a difficult task, need arrives right prior to supplication of resources, what comes in a profit is very low compared to what goes out on expenses, i think the economy is expected to run a complete and balance system whereby whenever there's an inflation and the price of commodities rises then there should be an increase on the rate of wages been paid but to my surprise things aren't going like that.

What an ideal world OP is talking about - but at that time money had value. Today no amount of money is enough and no amount of money is enough money.
Lets suppose if we go back to that time - at that time people would also be complaining about high prices. SO this problem of having inflancing will remain for ever.

I think the "work to survive" thing is not sustainable. I mean I do it, and many people I know are doing it, and that this rate I do not think that we could survive this for a long time. If we keep on just working and working and have absolutely nothing else to do, then we are going to be quite upset about our world. From all these, I highly suggest that we should stop doing all of this, and start focusing on how to do what we can in another way.

What does that mean? It means that we should be finding hobbies, and earning enough to have a chance to do what we love on the side as well. Maybe "travel the world" type could be too much, but at least something local, or in house.

Happy birthday in arrears Op, I'm amazed at your age. It feels good to understand that 80yrs old men are in our midst and actively using bitcoin. I celebrate you.

For the 36% inflation over the years, I want to understand something. Whether the increment was as a result of long term inflation or change of pms price. I am asking because in my country, you could buy a litre for $1 today and next day the government will announce that it is $5 and because of subsidy removal bla bla. So, most times it's artificially induced by the government and I don't know why.

Its kind of interesting to know how the evolution of of inflation all around the world but it kept silent whole time and no one even can't find why this is happening, we all are used to it and running behind making more money so we can have enough for the need instead of thinking why the prices are increasing,etc.

Oil's usually taken out of the inflation calculations but energy can essentially cause the price of other consumer goods to inflate if the entire energy sector takes a hit. If Russian oil is scarce for Eastern Europe, the price of all goods go up because it takes energy to create goods.

Venezuela and Libya can't solve this. Ukrainian war needs to end.

A blissful birthday to you. seeing 8 decades isn't an easy experience to go by especially looking at how things were while young and how things are now at your current age. It just buttress the saying that, "Change is constant".
It's true what you say, for those at the echelon of power are just milking the poor through unruly taxes, impositions and so on, in disguise to maintain their lifestyle and opulence.

That is correct - "change is constant", and than is survival of the fittest.
If you want to excel in the life you have to move along with the modern stuff. BUT keep the old one saved. They will be an antique later in life.

I am very excited to know that we have some very senior members in the forum too.
Happy birthday to you - many you be healthy and wealthy - you have seen 8 decades and I am sure you have seen good time and bad time too. But the memory you have shared is lovely