It's the economy, stupid

I don't get something. Why is the price of gasoline an economic indicator? The average price of gasoline is about $3.00 a gallon. Is that a significant hit to the paycheck when you full up? Is that significant enough to begin worrying about the economy overall?

Gas has been pretty stagnant for the last two years. In fact, the current price of gas is a few cents lower than it was back in Sept. 2005. Go back 5 years and the price is all the way down to $1.50 a gallon. Ok - the price of gas has doubled in 5 years. That's horrible. (And inexcusable - didn't we recently invade a country sitting atop the largest oil reserves in the world?) But still - $1.50 increase in five years - is that really stretching anyone's paychecks out there?

Assuming you drive about 15,000 miles a year, and the average car gets around 25 miles per gallon (that's a big guess - mileage swings wildly depending on the model and age of your car), you're spending about $900 more per year on gas. (15,000 miles ÷ 25 miles per gallon = 600 gallons of gas. 600 gallons x $1.50 = $900)

That's $75 per month. Yeah - it's an inconvenient truth. But how much are you paying for your DVR and On-Demand? I'm sure you picked that up in the last 5 years. How about your tall latté in the morning? At $4 a pop, you're spending more on coffee than the gas increase if you stop off for a caffeine-boost on your way to work every morning. And I hope in the last 5 years you've received more than a $900 raise overall. I get it - it sucks to see those numbers on the gas meter keep spinning until you're paying $50 to fill your tank. But is it really an economic indicator? Is it really a sign of our economy's downfall? Or maybe I'm that out of touch riding around in a company car...