Five Things More Expensive Than Gas

It’s really an exciting time for water-cooler talk. Hillary calls it quits, a heat wave hits the East Coast, and gas prices are doing their very own imitation of that Mountain Climber game from the Price is Right. Of the three, I think gas prices truly have the staying power to be part of office chatter for quite some time.

Gas prices have risen from $1.34 just under eight years ago, (Hmm, what happened eight years ago?) to a staggering nationwide average of just more than $4—an pproximate 64 percent increase. In an effort to help everyone cope, I’ve put together a little list of five things more expensive than gas. Perhaps it will provide a little perspective and give each of us something to give up instead of our addiction to gas. (Oh, yeah, two oilmen moved to Washington).

Diet Mountain Dew: While not a staple of all diets, I do find the Dew helps me get through a sluggish, hot afternoon. With a 20 oz. bottle running $1.25 in the vending machine, I make that out to be a full $8 dollars a gallon. Which, to me, begs the question: How can soda made in a factory cost more than a fossil fuel pumped out of the ground and refined 12 ways to Sunday?

Milk: This is an easy comparison because both gas and milk come in the standard gallon—even if milk is a product that has its own artificial price controls. A gallon of organic milk was listed on Wegmans supermarket Web site for $5.79. Wegmans started in my home town, Canandaigua, N.Y., so I felt the need to include a mention.

Starbucks Coffee: Who is more evil, Exxon-Mobile or the venti-sized coffee house’s founder Howard Schultz? With a 16 oz. grande cup of joe running $1.98 ($15.84 per gallon), it might just be Schultz. Imagine if I ran the numbers on a shot of expresso. (Okay, I did and a gallon of expresso would cost just shy of $50 a gallon).