The New York Times has an article today, Many Feeling Pinch After Newest Surge in U.S. Fuel Prices. Centered on Denver, the article describes sacrifices and changes people are needing to make as a result of $2 gasoline.
In the CBS survey, 85 percent of the 1,113 respondents said they had been affected measurably by higher gas prices, and 56 percent said they had been affected a great deal.
Can this be true? Today, according to AAA, regular gasoline averages $2.04 nationwide. A year ago it was $1.48. That’s 56 cents a gallon. Even 30 gallons a week amounts to only $16.80. Are any but the seriously poor “affected measurably” by $16.80? Is this not mostly psychological because gasoline prices are posted so conspicuously?
Keep in mind that we were paying $2.81 a gallon in today’s dollars in 1981.
Because of the publicity and the posting of the cost per gallon, people tend to gripe. Sure most of us can afford the extra cost.
The real problem is that everything we comsume is affected by the cost of fuel. A little snowball that will grow and grow.
The cost of gas in 1981 is irrelevent. A lot of people were hurting then and a lot of people are hurting now. The affect on our economy hasn’t even started yet, but it sure will.
In NW Oregon I beleive we are paying about 90 cents a gallon more than we were last summer. At around 20 gallons a week that’s almost $1000 a year more. So, yes, that effects a lot of people. But more than that, it means higher prices on nearly everything else, because most products require oil products to produce and/or ship to market. It causes service prices to rise as well. So you can tack a whole lot more onto that $1000 a year increase due to rising oil prices, leaving even the middle class (if there still is one) feeling the pinch.