2 bits

well , by now its 2 and a half bits....damn it goes up so fast.

All joking aside , the media is loving this and it has done more than its fair share of helping convince people of hardship because this stuff sells air time. And before people gripe to me about , yeah but what about fixed income folk.....I Am a fixed income folk right now ( seasonal layoff ) and I am doing just fine. That being said , assuming you don't go into the red every month trying to keep up with the joneses and haven't sucked the Equity out of your house by using it as an ATM , just how long do you really have to work to earn a tank of gas? The average person....less than one work day in 5.

I work 80 hours a week at 9 an hour. I fill up twice a pay period lets say for example at $5 a gallon that's $55.00 a tank x2 that's 110.00 a pay period in fuel x 2 pay periods a month and I still have 84% of my income for everything else with room to spare. Also for the record I work in tourism and that income barely makes me a blip on the Feds income radar at 16k a year after taxes.

Windy example aside , for folks making more than I do , how much pain is real and how much is imagined because its in your face 24 7?

As far as Tourism goes , look at it this way: if people don't travel they opt for staycations , if you are a tourist rail operator , target the staycation crowd , its your best bet for riding this out.

just my 5 cents......wow....the speculators are even driving up the value of forum posts.