Some interesting numbers in 1997 and 2007:
Unlead Gas per gallon: 1997: $0.80 (Rolla, MO), 2007: $2.76 (St. Louis, as of today June 21), about 250% increase.
International call to China per minute: 1997: $0.76(LCI), 2007: $0.08 (AT&T Advantage, quote from ipevo), $0.02 (Skype or phone cards). Or you can use VoIP from iTalkBB $24.99 plan which offers unlimited calls to China and a few other countries. Anyway it’s about 90% drop of price.