Hell yes I remember those, looks exactly the same as my 1976 Civic 1200 which got 50mpg with me FLOGGING that *****. Now the hybrid Civic my buddy has gets the same, that's what we call "advancing".
It's also a bad comparison. Did you have airbags? Traction control? AM/FM/MP3? 180HP? Emissions control? In-car navigation system? A multiple speed automatic gearbox? (or even a CCVT?) Shock absorbing uni-body? Cars, like planes, have gotten fatter. We want the "options" on them most of the time.
I had someone make the comparison you just did using a stripped out Saturn to me once. I asked them what I'm going to ask you: would you trade in your current car and drive that old Civic? Everyday? Probably not.
Most people make this MPG mistake.
Oh, and yes the gap is part of problem. Airplanes have always been expensive, but compare purchasing power and you'll see how the gap affects it. This isn't class warfare, it's simple economics. You can go look at simple data to prove that.
Now, I'm all for class warfare. I've got lower tax rates now than under Bush2, Clinton, Bush1, and Reagan. Of course my technical purchasing power per dollar is lower than it was in years past, but my income has exceeded that loss. Basically, my "class" has won this round.
You can stick your head in the sand and go "meh, they never would've been pilots anyway" or "this is just class warfare" or any such silly argument. The trick is that in the first case you'll never find out. The second case? We've always had class warfare, and pretending it doesn't exist both ways is just an astounding case of willful blindness.
