mike

Here is an interesting thing... and I am not sure what it has to do with bicycling yet, but I will figure that out later..

Why does a pack of cigarettes seem to be pegged to the price of a gallon of gasoline?

1960's - pack of smokes = $.30, gallon of gas = $.30
1970's - pack of smokes = $.78, gallon of gas = $.76
1980's - pack of smokes = $1.60, gallon of gas = ~$1.60
1990's - pack of smokes = $2.50, gallon of gas = ~$2.50
2000's - pack of smokes = $3.20 to $4.00, gallon of gas $3.30 to $4.00

I am not a smoker, but I was going past the local gas station and mistook the price of cigs for the price of gas on the marque. It got me to thinking how closely tied the price of cigarettes has been to the price of gas since like... forever.