From: "Mark" 

I think the average person drives about 12K a year. If we assume 20mpg,
they're using about 600 gallons a year and let's assume they're earning
$40K. So at $1.75 a gallon they were spending about 2.6% of their gross; at
$3.50/gal twice that, or 5.3%

If the average person feels a pinch from that they can do 1 of 2 things,
drive a bit less or move up to a 40mpg vehicle which drops them back down
to that same 2.6% of gross pay that it was when they were paying $1.75 for
their fuel "addiction."

The point being, fuel costs are not nearly the percentage of income they
once were, just from hazy memory, back in the '70s when the oil embargo
hit, people were earning more like $10K and getting closer to 12mpg which
translates to about 3% of gross at 30 cents per gallon and about 6% of
gross after it went up to 60 cents per gallon.

Which explains why the economy today continues apace and will contine to do so.

"Geo"  wrote in message
news:4484ba57$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> "Phil Payne" 
wrote in message
> news:44846b53{at}w3.nls.net...
>
>> Oil is at $73 a barrel.
>
> this is actually a good thing, everyone on the planet who uses oil is now
> concerned about using less.
>
> Geo.
>
>

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