Ask HN: What is really wrong with the US economy, really?

Re:Ask HN: What is really wrong with the US economy, really? by Mz on Thursday February 27, 2014 @07:18PM (#7316379)

I have gone back and checked your links in your second reply. The second one indicates we are now spending between 4% and 6% of total household income on gasoline, which is double or triple what it was in 1979 at 2% of total household income. That's one helluva a jump.

And the residential energy link you gave: This is the headline: "Lower residential energy use reduces home energy expenditures as share of household income". So people are apparently reducing their use of energy, probably in part because they are feeling pinched.

At this point, it looks to me like you and I do not see the same conclusions from the same data. I don't understand how you can submit the links you did in support of your point of view here.

So I think it's probably best to walk away from this discussion.

Thank you.

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Re:Ask HN: What is really wrong with the US economy, really? by maxerickson on Thursday February 27, 2014 @08:21PM (#7316628)

You are reading the graph incorrectly. The values for percent of mean income are in the line graph and shown on the right axes. So in 1979, 5%, 2012, 4%.

It's not a very good measure, it isn't worth analyzing it deeply, but (to me anyway), it doesn't point to a massive increase in energy spending.

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