Two numbers converged last week have been the subject of outrage in different quarters. The price of gasoline finally started coming down. I saw $3.89 this weekend. Nationally the price fell below $4. It will be interesting to see whether that's the new benchmark for outrage and whether we will now be content to pay anything below $4. Incidentally, I'm betting on $5 by next Memorial Day.
The second number was the federal minimum wage, which reached the height of $6.55 per hour (incidentally eclipsing Wisconsin's $6.50). There were the usual stories about what a terrible burden that will be on small businesses. Of course, any minimum wage or child labor law is a burden on small business and you would be surprised how many people would like to see both of those impositions repealed.
But for now it's worth contemplating that it only takes 35.6 minutes of work at the minimum wage to pay for a gallon of gas this week versus 36.9 minutes last week. I guess that's what passes for progress these days.
If you drive a gas hog, you actually have to work longer at the minimum wage to buy a gallon of gas than it takes to burn it. My truck gets 15 mpg. At 55 mph, it would take a bit more than 16 minutes to burn a gallon of gas. A gas miser is better, but doesn't give much satisfaction. My Passat averages 33 mpg, which means I could drive for 36 minutes at 55 mph, just a few second more than the time it would take to pay for the gas at $6.55 per hour.
And you wonder why Americans seem depressed these days.
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