Are people from rural areas in the South and the Midwest being unfairly punished for having a truck?
A gallon of gasoline now costs drivers an average of $4 at the gas pump, and prices are likely to keep rising. As the New York Times observes, however, “pain is not being felt uniformly” because more people in the South and the Midwest use vehicles that require more gas, like trucks or tractors. The article goes on to point out that “[n]ationwide, Americans are now spending about 4 percent of their take-home income on gasoline. By contrast, in some counties in the Mississippi Delta, that figure has surpassed 13 percent.” In the Northwest, people are less affected because the median income is higher and there is more availability of public transit.
What do you think? Do you think the South should have been more responsible about planning for better public transportation? Or do you think that public transportation in the Northeast is a byproduct of a different type of economy?
