Comments on: Economic Impact of Gas Prices

By: Payday Loan Advocate

Payday Loan Advocate — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:06:58 +0000

With our economy falling behind, the war on terror, pork barreling legislation, corruption, and criminal activity on the rise, payday loans should be the last thing on politiciansâ€™ minds. Yet, for some reason, high profile politicians like Obama are focusing on this issue. Some states have banned them, such as Georgia and North Carolina, and more are in the process. Instead of fixing the important issues, they are trying to take out the payday loan industry for personal and political gain. Payday loans are simply for short-term financial assistance for the all-American family to cover some cost that wasnâ€™t budgeted or an emergency that they couldnâ€™t pay for at that moment. They provide help to citizens during these financially troubling times with loans that the government otherwise couldnâ€™t provide themselves. Stop the potential loss of thousands of jobs and the loss of a viable financial option by voicing your opinion to the legislature, before a nationwide ban becomes in effect.

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By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:19:28 +0000

I think Steve makes a good point. And along those lines- with the current state of the job market, people may be having to drive more miles to their jobs(if jobs are less available, convenience of location may be less of an option). I would be interested to know if the number of miles people are driving to work has changed over time.

By: DKH

DKH — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:04:25 +0000

The driving route for my summer job is about 55 miles, one way. This is not really by choice, and it certainly leads to a lot of carpooling. But there aren’t many housing options closer, at least for temporary living. Point is, there are some jobs that will require a lot of driving. Not everyone has an inner-city office job.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:42:01 +0000

The funny thing about looking at that graph is that if you remember, in 2000 (when the cost to drive 15k miles was about half of where it is now), people were complaining about high fuel costs and petitioning politicians for a tax holiday on gas (there actually was one enacted here in Illinois in the summer of 2000). Ah, those were the days – when we could complain about gas at $1.65 a gallon.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:31:09 +0000

"Do most people really rack up 15k miles? How? My worst year I drove around Seattle every day as a sales rep, drove the same car to Atlanta to see my sister, and hit 13k miles. I just don't see how most people need to drive 15k miles per year. Do most people try to live as far from work as possible."

Yes. The average commute is around 15 miles one way. In your worst year you averaged driving about 41 miles per work day if you walked to the grocery store and movie theater and never did any other driving at all. Not much of a sales route.
You are right though, most people don't "need" to drive 15k miles. All we "need" is to grub around for roots and berries for 35 years and then die when the drought hits.
Seriously, most people have a lot of factors driving their choice of location. Distance from job is just one of many.

By: JIMS

JIMS — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:53:32 +0000

Do most people really rack up 15k miles? How? My worst year I drove around Seattle every day as a sales rep, drove the same car to Atlanta to see my sister, and hit 13k miles. I just don’t see how most people need to drive 15k miles per year. Do most people try to live as far from work as possible.

By: BlacquesJacquesShellacques

BlacquesJacquesShellacques — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:07:45 +0000

Can you shade it or otherwise mark it to show which party controlled congress and/or the white house? Correlate with the US dollar? Tax rates?

By: Bob S

Bob S — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:39:39 +0000

A great, great post. It shows how delusional our public debates really are. Here's a question, can a political system that is delusional long endure?

I bet that if the data were extended back to 1960, our current problems would look even smaller.

By: Jim Hart

Jim Hart — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:27:45 +0000

Relativism? We aren’t quite as “un-free” as we were back in England? The problem with this as in other situations is that the Fabian Socialists still think they know better what is good for us than the free markets. If Gas prices were this high as an affect of free markets, nobody would be wincing. They are not.

By: Bill Lever

Bill Lever — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:15:39 +0000

Interesting as usual. Thanks.

I liked your idea to control for the MPG of cars.. and I wonder if one more variable - namely the actual miles people drove in 1980 vs now-- might show a more basic feature of human behavior regarding family budgets?

I suspect we might find that people have spent close to the same percentage of overall income for transportation over time. They can adapt and transportation is not a priority in itself.

I would be interested in a timeline of budget items over history (How we spend our money these days and how people spent their time in pre-monetized life).

The big declines in percentage are probably Food and Heating Fuel. The replacement budget items have probabaly been Entertainment, Education and Medical care. Shelter, Transporation and even Law and Order might be relatively constant percentages over time.

Recent growth in Government Tax as a budget item is just because government is providing more services than in prior eras... eg. Social Security for your granny, so she's not your problem these days.. (Not that everyone agrees that more government is a good thing, or cheaper, or without some adverse side effects.)