Gas Tanks Are Draining Family Budgets

"Finland has produced so many brilliant distance runners because back home it costs $2.50 a gallon for gas."
~Esa Tikkannen, 1979
[when $2.50 was expensive!]

From Gas Tanks Are Draining Family Budgets:

“Households spent an average of $369 on gas last month. In April 2009, they spent just $201. Families now spend more filling up than they spend on cars, clothes or recreation. Last year, they spent less on gasoline than each of those things. . . . Only twice before have Americans spent this much of their income on gas. In 1981, after the last oil crisis, Americans spent 8.8 percent of household income on gas. In July 2008, when oil price spiked, they spent 10.2 percent. Average hourly earnings, meanwhile, have risen just 1.9 percent in the past year. That’s only just enough to keep up with inflation.” And only if the measure of “inflation” doesn’t include gas prices.

Bottom Line

I never considered that the cost of the gas could exceed the cost of the car itself. But then I never imagined spending $40-50 every week to commute to work.