[lbo-talk] Peak Oil or Oil Bubble?

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Apr 14 09:19:47 PDT 2005


Leigh Meyers wrote:


>The working poor hold jobs closer to home. Not too many dishwashers
>commuting from the Bay Area to Fresno... But office managers often do.
>
>No No... The lower middle/ middle class takes the hit. The ones that buy
>the SUV in puruit of the "American Dream", or at least the image of it.

The lower middle class couldn't afford an SUV.

The average US household spent about 3% of its after-tax income on gas & oil in 2003. The poorest quintile spent 7%; the richest, 2%. The sucky thing is that given US land-use patterns, most people have little choice about how much to spend on gas, so the increase has hit the bottom half pretty hard.

Doug



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