"They" say that the amount of money spent on gasoline by the "average" American this past April was $368. Last April (2010), it was $281. And two years before that, April, 2009, it was $174.
The story makes is sound like the $368 this year assumes that you spent nothing on gasoline last April or the April before that:
Round-trip airfare from New York to Los Angeles. More than a dozen dinners for two at Applebee's. Two 16 GB iPod nanos.
These are just a few of the things you could have bought if you weren't spending $368.09 a month on gasoline.As Al Gore would say, there are two inconvenient truths not noted in the article.
The first inconvenient truth is the delta, not the actual amount of money, being spent on a monthly basis, in an article like this.
The delta is $87 (this year vs last year), about $20/week, about $3.00/day, about one coffee and a donut at Dunkin' Donut.
The second inconvenient truth is the general state of the economy. We were in a severe recession back in 2009, perhaps the worse in modern times. Unemployment was very, very high, and coming up with $175 a month for gasoline when one is unemployed is a bit tougher than coming up with $370 when employed. And, again, it is the delta that is important.
The price of oil has fallen back from its recent highs and it looks like the price of gasoline should drop just before we go into the summer driving season.
The delta of $87/month works out to about $1000/year, about what the delta would be in higher taxes had the Bush tax breaks not been extended. Just saying. Taxes are a much bigger expense than gasoline for most Americans. And if not taxes, FICA withholding for those who do not pay any federal income tax.
About $60 of the $368 spent on gasoline last month went toward taxes on gasoline at the pump. The indirect cost of government regulation and corporate taxes brings the cost up significantly. And, finally, if you bought all your gasoline at an Exxon station, XOM made a profit of about $2.10 on that $368 spent for gasoline.
The last paragraph of the CNN article:
The only other region where drivers spend less income on gas is Washington D.C., where the average household spent just $89 on gas in April, or about 2% of total income.Perhaps that is why Congressmen and the administration do not feel our pain. Just 2 percent of the annual income of Washingtonians goes toward gasoline. Incredible. Remember, this is data provided by CNN, not FOX.