Editorials

The woman, running late for her shift at a local drive-thru, has no choice but to put a little gas in her car so she's on time. She makes $6 an hour. Gas is nearly $4 a gallon. The round-trip commute in her rural Alabama county is about 20 miles a day. Gas money today is burned grocery money for tomorrow.

The man, a self-employed Alabama farmer, depends on his beat-up Ford pickup for daily chores, but trading in his F150 for a more fuel-efficient Corrolla simply won't work. Can't haul his stuff around in the back of a four-door Toyota. He's trapped: He's gotta have his truck, he's gotta drive to get things done.

Politics have a way of dominating the news of election years. But besides the race to the White House, there is no bigger story in the summer of 2008 than the effect that gas prices have on everyday Americans. No one, rich or poor, is immune.

Problem is, $4-a-gallon gas has a sales tax-like slam on U.S. consumers. The cost of gas is the same to all. But spending $80 to fill up your tank once a week means more to a minimum-wage worker than it does to a bank president who pulls down a six-figure salary. It's an example of regressive economy at its worst.

Unfortunately, Alabamians know all too well about this reality. A New York Times story recently highlighted the fact that rural U.S. counties — particularly those in the South and in a few Western states — are getting crunched by gas prices worse than urban, more affluent counties. That seems an obvious statement.

But the nastiest part is that residents in the areas hit the worst are paying in some instances as much as 15 percent or more of their income on gas. (The national average is 4 percent.) And three Alabama counties — Wilcox, Sumter and Greene — are in the top 10 list of counties worst-affected by fuel costs. Residents in Wilcox County, one of Alabama's poorest, have the nation's highest percentage, with nearly 16 percent of their household income going in the tank.

Rural and low-income Americans are seemingly always caught between choosing between two unattractive options. By the nature of rural life, small-town residents drive more, have longer commutes and have fewer opportunities to carpool or use public transportation.

They need jobs, but getting there may cost some of them more than the salary they bring home. Spending that much money on gas has a mind-boggling effect on a family's budget. And that harsh reality could lead to a whole host of unattractive options, particularly population loss for rural counties and workers quitting their jobs because it makes more financial sense to stay home, park the car and seek government assistance.

For far too many Americans, there is no quick-fix solution. Gas pain is high, especially when options are few. No wonder we can't get gas prices off of our minds.