Quote:
Originally Posted by dr.roro
Actually median household income is closer to 50, not 35. Nonetheless, there's no question these rising gas prices are having a tangible impact on most Americans.
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You are correct, sorry for my mistake...this changes it to about 1.9% of your pretax income...let's analyze it a bit further...suppose you pay about 30% in taxes...that would leave you right at our previous $35,000....put it back up to the original 2.6%, actually closer to 2.7% of your net pay...two cars driving approximately the same distance using the same amount of fuel each week is doubling that...5.4% of your net income...now that's just an increase of $1 per gallon...I believe we will easily see at least a $2 per gallon increase...so you can take that number and double it...now you're burning up 10.8% of your net income on increased fuels costs...just at the pump. This doesn't count increases at the retail end (groceries, clothing, etc) which all see higher costs due to increased freight costs.
Put these percentages into dollars and you're talking $3780...over our current $4/per gallon cost which is already greatly effecting consumer confidence and the average persons level of discretionary income that is available for other products. This creates an extremely competitive atmosphere for people selling luxury goods...some people are simply shutting down right now...not spending anymore than they absolutely need to spend...this makes the problem worse as the economy suffers even greater damage.
I have to preach the doom and gloom, but unless our politicians have a plan we haven't seen anything yet. The media needs to learn to shut their cake eaters...they far too often drive the decisions behind our elected officials with their not so hidden agendas and they destroy consumer confidence. The only thing that gets the media off of this type of story are sensationalisitc events...Natalie Holloway, Scott Peterson, OJ Simpson, Nicole Smith, etc. So while I hate to see people like this and their families suffer, it's an unfortunate fact that they take the medias attention off of our economy and let things play out the way they're supposed to.
Our ultra liberal media may be single-handidly responsible for half of this countries problems...the other half clearly falls on this countries poor leadership, not just at the highest executive level (President) but right down to the very core of our country, Senators, Congressmen, Governors', etc. Don't get me wrong, I am not including everyone in this batch type statement, but this country is lacking in quality leadership...look at our Presidential candidates...Obama, Clinton and McCain...I don't think any one of these three is qualified for their current positions let alone the leader of the free world.