www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2006/05/08/publiceye/entry1598642.shtml
Daniel Gross suggested as much yesterday, by citing some numbers that indicate just how POd consumers generally are about high prices. And those numbers revealed that the pump wasnt so much of a pain for most: Last week, the Conference Board reported that the consumer confidence index for April hit its highest level since May 2002. "The rising prices on the pump didn't have an impact on consumer confidence at all," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center. These data point to the enormous resilience of the consumer. But they also bring into focus a truism lost in the miasma of media coverage and political rhetoric surrounding energy: while the price of gasoline may be highly visible and symbolic, filling up the tank simply doesn't eat up that much of most families' budgets. Gross crunches some more numbers with the help of a few economists. For instance, John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute in Washington, estimates that in 2006 the average household will devote $2,150 of its $46,302 in consumer expenditures to gasoline or 46 percent. In 2004, for comparison, the typical household spent significantly less on gasoline than on discretionary things like entertainment ($2,218), or food away from home ($2,434), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of course, lower-income households will be bearing more of a burden than wealthier ones, but, it looks like wealthier households tend to be those who use the most gasoline. And the high cost of gas doesnt appear to make too much of a dent in their budgets. Even at the higher prices, these comparatively better-off households which account for 64 percent of overall consumer spending are still devoting only a small fraction of their total spending to gas.
Comments Two more things: 1) Citing someone from the oil-industry propaganda outfit American Petroleum Institute in Washington without any rebuttal, even in a blog posting, is really, really bad form. It's like saying that when Bill gates walks into a bar with 10 people, the average person in the bar is worth 3 billion dollars. It is not the interpretation that the average reader will make of the words 'average household'.
although it seems that people disagree that the issue of gas prices is secondary (by the way, kudos to CBS for doing this question open-ended -- it's more work, and therefore more expensive to do, but the results are much more meaningful). The thing is, those 60% of lower earners you casually dismiss may only account for 40% of consumption, but many of them are already living without any margin in their budget. How about writing a piece on how well-educated, well-paid reporters have become increasingly disconnected from the majority of the population and lean increasingly conservative as a result? MoE +- 4 "What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?" Open-ended War in Iraq 23 Gas costs/Heating oil 13 Economy/Jobs 12 Immigration 8 Terrorism (general) 3 Poverty/Homelessness 3 President Bush 3 Health care 3 Misc.
All very true, the impact of gas prices is much over-hyped (although the impact on some transportation sectors is under-reported). The most fake of all being, of course, the myth that the US media is liberal (overall it probably is the most politically conservative in the developed world - though I only read 5 languages).
|
http://csua.com/feed/