re: Why are people crying over gas prices

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Sorry for not wanting to continue to be an imperialist there

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America should have stuck with the Monroe doctrine, let the eastern hemisphere do their own thing, the western hemisphere is ours. Get out of the ME but absolutely run North America entirely.

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In their poor financial decisions to buy that big ole home and accept $700/month notes on each of the cars they drive, like it does not matter. THIS MATTERS!

Yet, gasoline price goes up $1 (effectively costing them $500/year), and they chit the bed.

They are focused on the rounding errors and not what REALLY matters.

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Your overall point is sound, but you’re underselling the increase by only counting what people spend at the pump. Fuel costs are baked into almost every physical good through transport and production, so a $1 jump doesn’t stop at $500 a year. It’s closer to low four-figure once it filters through everything.

That said, I think this whole argument misses why gas gets so much attention. Rightly or wrongly, it’s become a proxy for how people judge the economy. It’s one of the few prices everyone pays and sees posted in big numbers on signs and billboards every day.

Other staple goods played a similar role years ago. Bread is the classic example in Europe, where bread prices have triggered riots and insurrections. In the US flour, eggs, and milk have been used at different times. People anchor on visible, universal cost.

There’s a reason gas dominates the conversation. It’s a classic case of price salience and the availability heuristic. It’s visible, updated constantly, and everyone buys it, so people use it as a shortcut for judging the whole economy. It functions as a heuristic proxy.

That’s also why replies that stay narrowly focused on gas itself can come off as evasive. If people are using gas as a proxy for broader conditions, and they are, then arguing the micro details of gas pricing misses the point, and the way to dispute that isn’t to nitpick gas itself. It’s to show why it’s a bad proxy, or to demonstrate that the broader economy is strong despite what gas prices are doing.

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It’s just 20 more bucks at the pump

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It is a hardship for some but most people bitch about money because they just hate spending money on anything that ain't fun or tasty or alters their reality. Folks bitch about spending money on groceries and utilities and gas and then willingly pay $85k for a gas or diesel guzzling pickup truck for a 110 pound woman to fetch groceries in....because they want the truck. And good for them, if it makes them happy. But for some people it is truly a hardship.

We went to Hawaii last spring and spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $10-15K for 10 days. My wife and I bitched and moaned about $500 meals for 4 people in Waikiki because bitching about money is about as American as apple pie and baseball. We didn't bitch about motel costs and airfare and rental car costs but when we saw a $10 happy meal at Mickey D's we both acted as if McDonalds had sexually assaulted us LOL...its the American way.

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We didn't bitch about motel costs and airfare and rental car costs but when we saw a $10 happy meal at Mickey D's we both acted as if McDonalds had sexually assaulted us LOL...its the American way.

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This part got a giggle out of me.

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It’s just 20 more bucks at the pump

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Exactly. AAA's website shows regular gas prices in my state are only up $1.40/gallon from this time last year and Diesel Fuel is up $1.96/gallon. That equates to 14 gallons of gasoline...($1.4/gal x 14gal = $19.6) or 10 gallons of diesel ($1.96/gal x 10 gal = $19.6) per person.

The fuel tanks on my 5 vehicles are (x gallons) and a fill-up would be ($Y) more from last year:

1) 25.4 gallons = $35.56 more
2) 22.0 gallons = $30.80 more
3) 29.0 gallons (diesel) = $56.84 more
4) 19.2 gallons = $26.88 more
5) 21.0 gallons = $29.40 more

Collectively, we are only paying $179.48 more at the pump than we were a year ago as a family. It's stupid for people to be crying over stuff like that. Especially since we are saving on other things like eggs. Eggs are down from $5.12/dozen a year ago to $2.35/dozen. That's saving $2.77/dozen from what it was a year ago.

So, every time my family eats 65 dozen eggs...it offsets the increased price of a tank of fuel for our vehicles. Since we fill up about once per week...and will eat about 1.5 dozen eggs/week...we've only got to increase our consumption by about 152 eggs/week per person and it's a wash.

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I know that buying gasoline is a choice. A choice you do not have to make, but do for the sake convenience.

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Lots of dumb to unpack.

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Psychology of Spending (a book that should be read!)...

People will worry about that latte that they purchase (and not altogether a bad thing...), while having already forfeited 6 or 7 figures of their future wealth / financial independence...

In their poor financial decisions to buy that big ole home and accept $700/month notes on each of the cars they drive, like it does not matter. THIS MATTERS!

Yet, gasoline price goes up $1 (effectively costing them $500/year), and they chit the bed.

They are focused on the rounding errors and not what REALLY matters.

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This was my point, with the original thread.

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people who are actually poor out there

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How many people starve to death in the United States each year due to poverty? How many sleep under bridges for reasons other than a drug addiction or mental illness? How many have to wear the same clothes all year until they can afford to buy new pants or shoes when the harvest comes in?

Y'all have used the word "poor" so long, you don't even know what poor is.

So you can look as ridiculous in 20 years importing and running Iranian Muslims for Congress as you do now with Somalis.