We Voted for Change & Got It: Gas Prices Eat up 9% of Family Budgets

[bobbyw24]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Round-trip airfare from New York to Los Angeles. More than a dozen dinners for two at Applebee's. Two 16 GB iPod nanos.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/2011/05/05/news/economy/gas_prices_income_spending/chart-gas-household.top.jpg

These are just a few of the things you could have bought if you weren't spending $368.09 a month on gasoline.

That's the average amount American households spent on gas in April, according to an exclusive analysis of data by the Oil Price Information Service for CNNMoney.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/05/news/economy/gas_prices_income_spending/index.htm?section=money_topstories

[Kludge]

Particularly interesting because gasoline consumption in the US has dropped significantly even while population has continued rapidly increasing. Ethanol consumption has also sharply increased in the past few years and sells for ~$3/gal while petro gas is $4/gal.

[bobbyw24]

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?290605-Walter-Williams-Calls-Out-Obama-for-Blaming-Speculators-for-High-Gas-Prices&highlight=speculators