Green Livin Rising Gas Prices are Just the Beginning of U.S. Financial Woes
We always knew it was coming in 2007 we saw the start of the Oil Companies plunder what's not lawfully thiers in Iraq. Now gasoline prices have reached a national average of $4.00 a gallon for the first time. Across the South, Southwest and the upper Great Plains, the combination of low incomes, high gas prices and heavy dependence on pickup trucks and vans is putting especially heavy presssure on family budgets.
Some farm workers are going as far as borrowing money from their bosses so they can fill their tanks and get to work. Some are switching jobs for shorter commutes. People are giving up meat so they can buy fuel, and gasoline theft is rising. Drivers are running out of gas more often, leaving their cars by the side of the road until they can scrape together gas money.
Some farm workers are going as far as borrowing money from their bosses so they can fill their tanks and get to work. Some are switching jobs for shorter commutes. People are giving up meat so they can buy fuel, and gasoline theft is rising. Drivers are running out of gas more often, leaving their cars by the side of the road until they can scrape together gas money.
The disparity between rural America and the rest of the country is a matter of simple home economics. Nationwide, Americans are now spending about 4 percent of their take-home income on gasoline. As a result, gasoline expenses are rivaling what families spend on food and housing.
“This crisis really impacts those who are at the economic margins of society, mostly in the rural areas and particularly parts of the Southeast,” said Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service, a fuel analysis firm. “These are people who have to decide between food and transportation.”
Rising oil prices affect so much more than just prices at the pump. Not only are you spending more on commuting, but prices on everything from groceries to tires, household goods and petroleum based personal products are also soaring.
“This crisis really impacts those who are at the economic margins of society, mostly in the rural areas and particularly parts of the Southeast,” said Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service, a fuel analysis firm. “These are people who have to decide between food and transportation.”
Rising oil prices affect so much more than just prices at the pump. Not only are you spending more on commuting, but prices on everything from groceries to tires, household goods and petroleum based personal products are also soaring.
Companies that make goods using raw materials derived from oil are trying to cope as well, opting between raising prices, shifting their production process to something less costly, or cutting workers.
The tire giant Goodyear has raised the prices by 15 percent in just four months. Procter & Gamble have averaged an increase of 5 percent on some of thier products, and Dow Company has hiked its prices as much as 20 percent across the board.
Meanwhile, incomes are stagnating, and for many, disappearing altogether. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported a jump in the unemployment rate from 5 percent to 5.5 percent with the loss of 861,000 jobs in the month of May.
Economists say that despite widespread concern about gasoline prices, the nationwide impact of the oil crisis has so far been gentler than during the oil crises of the 1970s and 1980s, when shortages caused long lines at the pump, set off inflation and drove the economy into recession.
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