Rising Gas Prices

Just talking this week in my house about the seeming lack of outrage in this country over rising gas prices.  Not at all like in 2008.  And then I wake up to this on my radio this morning.  From NPR's Morning Edition:

Others are much less concerned, including Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at the forecasting firm IHS. "The increase in gasoline prices, even to above $4 a gallon, is not a huge deal," he says. "Clearly it is squeezing some households, especially lower-income households. But it's very different from what happened back in 2008."

Back then, gas prices also hit $4 a gallon. But at the same time, the country was sliding into a historic financial crisis. The Federal Reserve says the economic recovery is "on firmer footing."

Behravesh says most Americans really don't spend that much money on gas. "Average households spend about 5 percent of their after-tax income on gasoline. That has risen a little bit from about 2 percent a couple of years ago, when oil prices and gasoline prices collapsed. So it is higher, but it's not a killer," he says. "This is not something that's going to kill this recovery."

Because of course, things are SO much better in this country now than they were in the summer of 2008. 

Collective depression is setting in on this country at an alarming rate.  Just the way the all-too-powerful-and-mighty want it.