70% Expect Gas Prices To Cause Financial Problems

May 6, 2006 7:18 pm US/Pacific

70% Expect Gas Prices To Cause Financial Problems

(AP) WASHINGTON High pump prices are pinching the pocketbooks of seven in 10 Americans, a financial hardship that more middle- and higher-income drivers say they are beginning to feel, an AP-Ipsos poll found.

With gasoline prices topping $3 a gallon for regular unleaded in many areas, people say they are driving less, cutting short vacations and curtailing their use of heating and air conditioning.

"Now, I'm just going to work and coming home — not doing anything else," said Kathleen Roberts, who makes a daily, 100-mile round trip from York, Pa., to her teaching job in Baltimore.

The number of people who expect rising gas prices to cause financial problems in the months ahead has jumped from 51 percent a year ago to 70 percent now, according to AP polling. This increase has been dramatic among people who earn more than $50,000.


more...
http://cbs13.com/topstories/topstories_story_126222459.html

It's not expect anymore folks, it "IS" causing a financial hardship! can only see one of two things happening. Either retail sales are going to plumit, or bankruptcies are going to soar. Most people just didn't have the additional $$ to spend on gas.

Everyone I know is very concerned about the rises in groceries and everything else that is trucked in. And some prices are jumping by a buck, not just a few cents. Most of my aquaintantces are cancelling vacations. But all of this will help drive the remaining little guys out of business. Isn't that a part of the whole sham?

the arco chain usually the least, and mom and pops the most (they are getting nailed for bein independent)

"here" is my part of southern california

Msongs
www.msongs.com
batik & digital art
mugs and shirts

in adult entertainment--two-three trips a month. We make a lot less, but we do not pay daily for gasoline and what local travel we must do we can combine many errands into one trip.

All in all, we're LESS behind and LESS likely to get nastygrams from our landlord now that we dropped out of the System's little work-home-slave plan.

Getting dropped the second their sixty-hour weeks filled whatever order to wait weeks on end to maybe get another assignment was more expense than it was worth. We drove anywhere from a few minutes to an hour plus for various assignments.

What we do when we're not young and pretty, I dunno. All the previous guarantees--stay at a job and do right, or get a good degree--are null and void, it seems. We have to be kind of "Zen" about it and just live in the immediate future/present and do what we can. I suspect a LOT of people are in a similar situation (ok, maybe not doing porn, ha, but having given up on the System to keep its word and reward loyalty with security)