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.
