2 Gallons
So I'm out walking and I notice the price of unleaded gasoline at a local station is $3.22. I am somewhat stunned. As a guy who doesn't drive (absolutely one hundred percent terrified of driving. Would probably wet the drawers if I were to. Ok maybe not the pants wetting but definitely cold perspiration and cramping of the right leg)I don't pay attention to the price of gas. I'm unusual in this respect.
I've known people who can tell you the cheapest place to get gas for almost a twenty radius. If there is a place outside this radius that is of a famously lower price they will do the math to figure out exactly how much gas they need to buy at the lowered rate to make it worth the cost of the trip. These are budget conscious people.
I am more of an impulse buy until the money is gone sort of guy. Anything larger than a single tends to make the wallet just feel a little to heavy. I can ignore singles just so long as I don't keep em all in the same place. They start to build up into an impressive pile and they need spending. It's probably a good thing I've never had a car. The money might never make it to the tank.
So I'm standing there staring up at this sign. $3.22 a gallon. I'm thinking, "Holy mother of Batman! That is more than half of minimum wage. I'm wrong. In Illinois minimum wage is $6.50. So in the state of Illinois, the trusty windows calculator tells me that a person earning minimum wage can get 2.01863354(etc. etc.)gallons of gas for an single hour of their labor (before taxes).
This gets me wondering about fuel consumption. Minimum wage jobs are often part time jobs. This can mean 7 hours shifts at the just screw em out of benefits category, to as little as 1 and 2 hour shifts in the just come in to cover the meal time / drive time rush category. If the person burns more than 2 gallons of gas driving to and from work it could conceivably leave em with only a few hours pay after every shift, almost making the trip an exercise in futility.
Sure some cars get excellent mileage. But then there are trains and traffic stops, accidents and rubber neckers. Gas is wasted just sitting in the car waiting for the idiot in front of you to decide if he or she wants to turn at this corner or the next.
The federal minimum wage hasn't gone up since 1998. The price of gas keeps going up. It makes me wonder how the jobs are going to get done when people wont be able to afford to go to work.
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I've known people who can tell you the cheapest place to get gas for almost a twenty radius. If there is a place outside this radius that is of a famously lower price they will do the math to figure out exactly how much gas they need to buy at the lowered rate to make it worth the cost of the trip. These are budget conscious people.
I am more of an impulse buy until the money is gone sort of guy. Anything larger than a single tends to make the wallet just feel a little to heavy. I can ignore singles just so long as I don't keep em all in the same place. They start to build up into an impressive pile and they need spending. It's probably a good thing I've never had a car. The money might never make it to the tank.
So I'm standing there staring up at this sign. $3.22 a gallon. I'm thinking, "Holy mother of Batman! That is more than half of minimum wage. I'm wrong. In Illinois minimum wage is $6.50. So in the state of Illinois, the trusty windows calculator tells me that a person earning minimum wage can get 2.01863354(etc. etc.)gallons of gas for an single hour of their labor (before taxes).
This gets me wondering about fuel consumption. Minimum wage jobs are often part time jobs. This can mean 7 hours shifts at the just screw em out of benefits category, to as little as 1 and 2 hour shifts in the just come in to cover the meal time / drive time rush category. If the person burns more than 2 gallons of gas driving to and from work it could conceivably leave em with only a few hours pay after every shift, almost making the trip an exercise in futility.
Sure some cars get excellent mileage. But then there are trains and traffic stops, accidents and rubber neckers. Gas is wasted just sitting in the car waiting for the idiot in front of you to decide if he or she wants to turn at this corner or the next.
The federal minimum wage hasn't gone up since 1998. The price of gas keeps going up. It makes me wonder how the jobs are going to get done when people wont be able to afford to go to work.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 2:39 AM
3 Comments:
Yup, that's why I ended up quitting my dream job. It was too damn far from home. Granted, I was getting more than minimum wage, but it still wasn't worth it.
Man, I cried and cried after doing the math on that. Factored in the hours in So. Cal traffic, the time to and from work and the gas money I was spending on a weekly basis, and I was basically paying to drive to and from work, with very little left over.
I didn't even factor in the non-monetary pitfalls, including severe stress. Not from the job, but from the hours in traffic each day!
I know economists study this sort of thing all the time, but it really is amazing when you start to consider the impact of the cost of fuel to every other aspect of our lives. Scary.
I've been doing my best not to think about it. If getting angry would do some good, we wouldn't be in this situation. I'm willing to bet $5 that gas will be $4 by Christmas.
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