Assuming that’s about a 60 mile commute and they average 30 miles per gallon, that means it costs your friends 1/8th of their income just to drive to work.
2 gals x $4/gallon x 2 trips = $16. That’s one hour of their eight hour shift that they have to work just to be able to work.
That’s if they get 30mpg. At 20mpg, it costs them $24, or 1.5 hours of work just to afford to get to work.
Yet the most popular new cars sold are V8s that weigh 2.5 tonnes and are the size and shape of a brick shithouse. In this country, you can’t even buy a small, economical hatchback new anymore, even if you had the money.
Fuel costs in the 1970s were never anymore than 40¢/Litre, yet that was the “fuel crisis” and the driving force behind econo-boxes. Now at $2.20/Litre, Ford of Australia only sell two whopping big utes, a van, and three ugly SUVs.
Assuming that’s about a 60 mile commute and they average 30 miles per gallon, that means it costs your friends 1/8th of their income just to drive to work.
2 gals x $4/gallon x 2 trips = $16. That’s one hour of their eight hour shift that they have to work just to be able to work.
That’s if they get 30mpg. At 20mpg, it costs them $24, or 1.5 hours of work just to afford to get to work.
Yet the most popular new cars sold are V8s that weigh 2.5 tonnes and are the size and shape of a brick shithouse. In this country, you can’t even buy a small, economical hatchback new anymore, even if you had the money.
Fuel costs in the 1970s were never anymore than 40¢/Litre, yet that was the “fuel crisis” and the driving force behind econo-boxes. Now at $2.20/Litre, Ford of Australia only sell two whopping big utes, a van, and three ugly SUVs.