It is a staple of lazy electronic journalism, when gasoline prices are high, to rush to gas stations around holidays and shove a microphone into the face of people refueling their vehicles.
All too often, these people are women, driving alone in an SUV the size of a semi-truck, and that cost $70,000 or more to purchase. Almost across the board, they whine about higher gas prices. These whiners aren’t really going to be bankrupt if they are forced to go into their pockets for an extra $50, but oh, do they complain.
Forget baseball. Whining and victimhood have become our national pastimes. Now there’s a World Classic we wouldn’t lose, like we keep doing in baseball.
I’ve written in the past debunking the griping about gasoline prices and holiday travel using the math of the average length of drive for these holiday visits, the average MPG of the vehicles and median income. Simply put, it’s not that much of an economic hardship for most people.
These days, opportunists in the oil market are pricing in a doomsday scenario due to the air attacks on Iran. They have ratcheted up the price of oil and, by extension gasoline, to reflect that.
And the leftist media can always find someone screaming like a cat with its tail caught in the screen door regarding rising gasoline prices.
Are these people righteous? Mostly no.
Consider, the average driver in these United States puts about 13,662 miles on his or her vehicles each year according to 2025 data from the Federal Highway Administration. That’s a tick under 263 miles a week.
The average miles per gallon figures, again domestically, are 24.4 MPG for cars and 17.8 for light trucks, vans, SUVs.
To make the math easy, let’s say the average personal-use vehicle gets 20 MPG. Divide that into the average weekly mileage and you get just over 13 gallons of gasoline used to cover that distance.
Now, again to make the math easy, say gasoline prices have increased $1 a gallon. That’s an extra $13 a week, $52 a month and, should this thing endure for an entire year, $676.
That worst-case scenario is not a bill that comes due up front, but is paid $13 a week.
Cut out a couple of overpriced coffees per week and you’ve made up for that extra $13.
If you are living so close to the bone that an extra $13 a week in expense cripples your budget, you have been and presumably are doing a lot of things wrong.
I wish this Iran adventure were costing me just $13 a week. But, it’s thrown a wrench into the precious metals markets and mining stocks. There were days last week when I lost many multiples of $13 a minute while the markets were open.
Not complaining, mind you, just sharing facts. I’m still for President Trump’s actions regarding Iran, even if it is negatively impacting my net worth in extreme ways.
I’m looking at the long view on this – short-term pain for long-term gain. I just wish I had more company in that school of thought.
Sam Ross Jr's site 