BRIAR FORK, Mo. — A Briar Fork man who said he is “getting richer by the gallon” described the current price of gasoline as “basically a raise” Sunday after driving 41 miles past nine cheaper stations to fill his truck at one charging 31 cents more.
The national average price of regular gasoline was $4.37 on Oct. 6, according to AAA data, up about 39 percent from $3.13 a year ago. It is below the all-time record of $5.0165 that AAA recorded in June 2022. Diesel averaged $6.32.
“I looked at the other stations. They were cheaper. I don’t want cheaper,” said Rodney Fitch, 47, a self-employed pressure washer, standing at pump 6 in a cap reading “WINNING.” “Cheaper means the gas is worse. This one is $4.68. That’s the good gas. I can feel it in the truck.”
Fitch filled 20 gallons, for a total of $93.60. He said he was “thrilled.”
“Last year I’d have paid like $62 for that,” he said. “Now I pay $93. That’s $31 of extra gas. I’m getting more gas for my money, and that’s called a deal.” The pump showed 20.0 gallons, the same amount he would have received a year ago. He said the pump was “being modest.”
He explained his reasoning as he held the nozzle in place for an additional 90 seconds after it had clicked off. “If the price goes up, the gas is worth more, and I’m the one holding the gas,” Fitch said. “I’ve got 20 gallons of gold in that tank. I’m sitting on a fortune. Every time I drive, I burn a little of it, which is the only downside.”
Fitch said he had drawn the same conclusion about other items. “Eggs, up. Beef, up. Insurance, up. Do you know what that means? It means everything I own is worth more,” he said. “I’ve got a couch in my living room that is worth like $4,000 now. Nobody’s offered. That’s their loss.”
He said he also listed his 2009 pickup for $90,000 on Saturday, “to reflect the market.” As of Sunday it had received one offer, for $1,200, from his brother-in-law, who said it “runs.”
Fitch said his wife, Denise, had stopped asking where the household money was going. “I told her it’s going into the truck, and she said, ‘That’s what I was afraid of,’ and I said, ‘See? Even you get it,’” he said.
He has not driven since Tuesday, a decision he said was saving the family “about $1.2 million a year, if you project it out.” Asked how he arrived at that figure, he said he had “run it on a calculator at the gas station” and that “the calculator was very excited.”
Asked whether he was concerned about prices, Fitch said he was “not against high prices,” adding that they “build character.” “My grandfather walked to the mill. Eleven miles. Uphill, both ways, in a different time zone,” Fitch said. “I’m only now getting the chance to walk, because I can’t afford to drive, and that’s a gift. That’s what they don’t tell you. It’s a gift.”
He credited “whoever’s in charge” for the price, “because it’s working.” Asked who that was, he said, “The guy.” Asked whether he would have felt the same way in 2022, when the national average reached $5.0165, Fitch said he did not remember 2022. “I think I was in a coma,” he said. “Not a medical one. A mood.”
Dr. Marjorie Teller, director of the Center for Measured Outcomes, said she had reviewed Fitch’s reasoning “at his request, over the phone, while he was pumping.” “Mr. Fitch has described inflation as ‘a raise from the pump.’ It is not. A raise is money you receive. A price is money you pay,” Teller said. “In 22 years of studying consumer behavior, I have encountered the belief that a higher price means a better product in 4,100 cases. In all 4,100, the person was holding the receipt.” She added that Fitch was correct on one point: “The gallon is full.”
A spokesperson for the Institute for Common Sense, Dr. Chad Brickhouse, said that the Institute “does not recognize a difference between price and cost,” and that “cost is what you pay, and price is what it says, and they are the same, except when they aren’t.” He was calling from a different phone.
Fitch said he would be fine with higher prices still. “At $9, I’d be the richest man in the county,” he said. “Nine dollars. I’d have so much gas. I’d be a landlord of gas.”
The pump asked whether he wanted a receipt. Fitch declined, saying, “I’d rather believe.” He then drove 41 miles home, arriving with a quarter tank. He called the quarter tank “a surplus.”