Let them eat cake -- Michelle
As a rule of thumb, folks across the nation spend 5 - 10% of their income on gasoline. The folks in the northeast are at the lower end.
But the lowest: District of Columbia, where residents spend just 1.4% of their income on gasoline. (I remember posting this a long time ago, or at least reading about it, and was as dumbfounded then, as I am now. As we all know, SecEnergy Stephen Chu spends nothing on gasoline; he does not own a car.)
North Dakota: 10%
California: 7%
Texas: 9%
Minnesota: 6%
With the vast northeast spending around 5% of their income on gasoline, and even Californians spending only 7% of their annual income on gasoline, it helps explain why talking heads are not particularly worried about the rising price of gasoline. In many cases, state taxes exceed gasoline expenditures.
The Europeans have always envied our inexpensive fuels.
Note to the Granddaughters
So, in the northeast, we have folks complaining AT THE PUMP about the price of gasoline, but at the end of the month, when paying their credit cards, it's a minor nuisance for those in the northeast. I would wager that restaurant meals in the northeast take a much bigger bite than gasoline. (Every Thursday, our two granddaughters, my wife, and I have a Burger King meal -- just under $25. I put in $20 worth of gasoline into the Honda Civic I borrow every week or so. An occasional meal at Burger King with the granddaughters costs more than the occasional gasoline I use.)
Oh, by the way, as long as I'm rambling. The BEST cafe in the world for dessert is in Ipswich, Massachusetts! Cafe Zabaglione. A modest dinner for the two granddaughters, my wife, and I, with individual desserts for all results in a bill that far exceeds filling the tank of the Honda Civic. Website for Cafe Zabalione here. We love it. About an hour from where we live.
An even bigger bite as a percent of annual income? Communications, telephone, television -- add up the bill for cell phones, land lines, iPads, internet, cable television, Netflix, digital newspaper subscriptions, etc. This total is not trivial.
Bruce ,
ReplyDeleteA good yard stick is, Every time you fill up,
I get 50 cense.
Nick Anderson
Key West
33040
Nick,
DeleteWow! Key West. You have noted that before; I didn't pay attention before, but I became a "reader) in 2002 at the age of 51 (?). Started with the women writers of the 18th and 19th centuries. High point might have been Virginia Woolf (20th century).
I never (at least don't recall) reading Hemingway in younger days; high school; college. I never thought I would enjoy Hemingway. That's all changed. About two years ago, I went into a Hemingway phase -- and his story / his stories are some of my favorites. I will go into a phase that last 4 to 6 months and learn all I can about an author and read some of his/her stuff.
So Key West. I'm sure most folks who live there don't think about him much. Folks always looking elsewhere for something better/different, I suppose.
Hemingway House museum from google search: 907 Whitehead St Key West, FL 33040. Don't know if that's accurate; didn't double-check.
Have a great rest of the week in sunny/often rainy/occasionally windy Florida. Thank you for taking time to comment, and giving me another reason to ramble.
The people hit the hardest by high gas and fuel prices are farmers and ranchers, and truckers. A ten or twenty cent hike in fuel prices is not trivial much less fifty cents or a dollar. They use tens of thousands of gallons per year and have fuel bills in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. High fuel prices are a killer for these people. These people are probably spending twenty to twenty five percent of their gross income on fuel. Insane.
ReplyDeleteI am aware of that, and agree with you completely. That's why statistics alone without background are dangerous.
DeleteNow, couple the challenge farmers have paying for fuel and the bureaucrats in DC, who pay 1.4% of their annual income on gasoline, complain about subsidies to the American farmer.
With New Yorkers paying 4% of their income on gasoline (which means New York City folks paying about 1% to offset the 10% the upstate NY farmers are paying) and you can understand why the state bans frakcing. Gasoline is not an economic issue for folks who live in New York City.