Last year, in the month of Feb., we spent a little over $ 120 on gas for the whole month...

[WCGreen]

This year, even with the discounts we get from buying food at the store that sells us gas, we spent over $ 250 on gas.

We drove a little bit more than last year, but still...

My SSI was frozen for the second year because of the so called lack of inflation. Or was it to afford an extension of the tax cuts for the top income brackets.

MrsWCreens' 3% raise is eaten up by the secondary cost increases caused by the rise in Gas prices.

Our property taxes went up by about 4%.

Meanwhile gov Kashich wants to cut the taxes for every business in the state so the revenue will be made up with increased sales taxes, gas taxes, increasing in property taxes, stuff that really hurts when you are basically stuck in an income rut.

The lingering recession is keeping wages down for 90% of the population while those at the top, the people who own stuff instead of making stuff, see their wealth increase exponentially.

And here we are, mucking around worried about Egypt, Japan, Syria while our way of life is slowly sinking under the weight of the fat cats at the top of the pile voraciously destroying the dreams of three generations...

[Make7]

1. Aren't gas prices actually up about 25% between those two time periods?

Not sure how that translates into you spending over twice as much. :shrug:
 

[WCGreen]

3. I have the numbers right in front of me...

Of course we just filled up the car today for over 60 and perhaps that last fill up in February of '10 reached further into March last year...

Just pointing out that it is substantually higher than last year and those of us who are at least partially on a fixed income really feel the increase...

It was basically a jump off point to show that prices are increasing faster for those in th middle and lower income strata than our incomes...

:)

[Make7]

6. I wasn't disputing the dollar amounts in your post...

... just the impression that higher prices accounted for most of it. Depending on what days in those time periods that you ended up getting gasoline, there might be a significant difference in the number of gallons purchased in each of those months. In fact, if my rough average pricing is somewhat accurate then the majority of the price increase is from purchasing a larger quantity of fuel in the most recent period.

Your larger point is obviously correct. A twenty-five percent increase on a significant necessity when someone is on a fixed or limited income is a definite hardship. Doubly so for fuel prices since they tend to impact the price of other basic necessities (e.g. food, heating, cooling, etc.).

For many people, I think the inflation indexes are not an accurate indicator for their cost of living. It seems that medical costs, insurance costs, fuel prices, and food prices have been going up significantly recently; yet the price indexes don't seem to reflect how that affects a lot of people.

Wages for the lower and middle class has been essentially stagnant for decades, so if there is even minimal inflation from year to year over that time period, we are all falling behind. And I don't see how that trend is doing anything but getting more pronounced recently. There are lots of people hurting out there, but the wealthy seem to be doing as well or better the past couple of years.
 

[WCGreen]

7. That's exactly the point...

I am kind of glad that I am a little older because if this trend of devolving back to the 1800's, those who come after are in for a brutal existence.

[truedelphi]

4. In many places, it has been a much colder, harsher winter.

We moved into this house in 2007. We didn't even bother turning the heat on until April 10th, when we could finally afford the huge deposit the utility company was demanding (Based on the prior tenants' useage, and I think they were hot house flowers.)

This year, I think I'd have frozen by now if we didn't have the heat on at least once in a while.

It has snowed four times with snow remaining on the ground for more than 24 hours, and there hasn't been a week since New Year's that I don't see at least one mountain with snow on it by visual checking (Some years, we can't see snow - not even with binoculars fixed on the Mt Lassen area.)

[bobbolink]

2. Yet, try telling "progressives" that regressive taxes are bad for non-affluent people. Good luck

getting that across to them.

And you can be sure that "progressive environmentalists" are celebrating the increased fuel costs.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Damn, that just sucks.

I'm so sorry.

And pissed off at Gov Kasich.

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