Like a lot of people this week, I heard the news that there is a gasoline shortage because some hackers from Russia tapped into the gasoline grid and did some dirty work. They apparently disrupted the flow of operations at gas pipelines in the parts of the deep South. This diabolical plan has resulted in thousands of car drivers scrambling for gas, some resorting to desperate means of hoarding. Fortunately, we aren't expected to feel much of any shortages here in the Pacific Northwest. Whew!

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I have seen real photos on Twitter of people filling up dozens of gas cans. Others have been photographed at gas stations pumping gas into clear plastic bags and storing them in their trunks. I call these people big dummies because all it will take is one spark around those bags and their car will become an instant car bomb!

This very scenario has already happened this week in South Carolina. Not only was the victim driving a stolen car, but she was also involved in a police chase. Her car flipped over during the chase and it exploded because she had all of that gasoline stored in bags in her trunk. Her body even caught on fire and the police had to call an ambulance to rush her to the hospital!

Oh, the tales we weave when we hoard up all the gas!

Here are four things I wish the hackers from Russia would exploit instead of the gas system:

MY STUPID STUDENT LOAN DEBT: I want them to hack into Sallie Mae and Navient and delete everybody's student loans, including mine! What's the hold up, man? I owe them a crap-ton of debt and I'll probably never be able to pay it off!

MY BAR TAB: It would be cool if they hacked the register so that every time I went to my new favorite bar (Purr Bar & Restaurant on Yakima Ave), it would only cost 38 cents no matter what I ordered.

HACK MY DOOR DASH ACCOUNT AND PUT SOME MONEY IN IT: I'm gonna need some hackers to get inside my food delivery apps and put some money on it so that every time I order something, there is always enough to cover it (with enough to cover the 20% tip, because I ain't a cheapskate)!

SELF-CHECKOUT STANDS: Russia, if you're listening, can you find a way to where everything I ring up at the checkout lane at the Fred Meyer comes out to 38 cents per item, including the furniture? Kthanksbye!

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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