From: "Mark" 

Edit: "The point being, fuel costs are not nearly the percentage of income"

That should have read, the percentage of income spent on fuel today is not
dissimilar to what it was almost 40 years ago.

"Mark"  wrote in message
news:4484c80f{at}w3.nls.net...
>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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