Laura Bush liquidateed her boy friend
OK, lets do the math....
30 mpg for 120 miles means 4 gallons of gasoline per day.
If the price of gasoline is $1 dollar more a gallon, that means $4 more per day.
If a person makes $10 per hour $7 after taxes (buttuming 30% taxes $20K per year - pretty low), that means that the worker is taking about 35 minutes to pay for the extra gasoline.
Does that sound like one needs to quit their job?
Now lets look at the cause....
Point #1:
The US and some European contries, in their expanding efforts to aid developing countries, has fueled a demand for oil. The prices of oil are responding to the demand from many of these developing countries, particularly, China. This development didn't just start up overnight nor did the development of these countries grow independently. Its been taking off with vigor starting about 10 years ago (prior to Bush).
So its not a Bush administration problem. Like most of the other issues facing the current administration, the problems are inherited from previous administrations (mostly during the Clinton years) that refused to do anything.
Point #2
Business in the US consumes about 72 - 74% of the oil, not personal motor vehicles. So the use of a 10mpg SUV doesn't impact oil demand very much even if 10% of the vehicles get this low value (do the math). Most SUVs get in the upper teens or low 20s mpg.
Immigrants, illegal or legal, consbreastute a very small minority of drivers and their impact on the demand for oil is lost in the sampling noise floor.
