Russia was the third largest producer of oil in 2022 behind Saudi Arabia and the US. The removal of this Russian oil from the market through sanctions drove up prices to the levels you noted in 2022.
Western companies leaving started an instant decline.
Proportionally though, more people had more discretionary income, on average?
I know personally, the costs of our sports/travel/entertainment activities have gone up dramatically since 2018, many nearly doubling and our income hasn't matched that pace. We are in our late 40's, but in our early 20's we were fortunate to have cheap rent, cheap simple used cars, and be able to save enough in a couple years to buy our big chunk of land and build our house 20 years ago, for about 2.5 times our yearly income, with only $50k line of credit, no mortgage at all. We certainly couldn't do that now.
I agree with what you’re saying but it just shows how fast this can change. Eventually the geopolitical risks are solved and we’re back to cheap oil. Next week or next year - hard to say, but will happen.
And necessity being what it is to invention - there will be some new ways coming to minimize the risk of the choke point …
