Gas is "cheap"

[BigMoneyJim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moghopper Good question... This isn't take home pay... but income as reported by the Census Bureau http://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-142.pdf 1982: Median Household income 20170 http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p60-218.pdf 2001: Median Household income 42228 http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/incom.../statemhi.html (3 year Average Median) (2001-2003) Median Household income 43,527 That appears to be ~115% increase to me. (from 20170 to 43527)

That's household income, not personal income. I suspect there are more multi-income households in later years. I opened one of the PDFs but got bored trying to figure it out for myself. Of course, we buy a lot more crap now like XXXL houses, multiple cars and myriad electronics, so it's not an easy science comparing spending to 30 years ago.