[gruez]

>shelter isn't just a cherry picked item. It's by an far the largest spending category, that and healthcare.

The BLS agrees. That's why "shelter" is weighted 35.6% in the CPI basket, by far the biggest item.

> I couldn't care less about all the other categories, personally.

If we're going by what people "care" about (whatever that means), the basket would probably be like 70% gas prices, 20% grocery prices, and 10% for everything else. Empirically speaking, those two are far more salient politically than housing.

[heathrow83829]

yeah, staggering. it's utterly amazing how much people care about gas prices. i can't wrap my mind around it. I mean, would people really rather be out on the street rather than get an EV or god forbid a hybrid?

[mancerayder]

Gas is misleading - petrol / oil would be better. I don't know if natural gas is going up, but if we mean pump prices of the liquid that goes into cars: that's also used (although with some differences) to heat people's homes - oil heat is extremely common in rural areas. This winter it cost me about 600 dollars in one month to heat a home in the Northeast I kept at 60 degrees except weekends!

Electricity is even worse.

Petroleum also impacts industrial goods prices, flight costs, etc. It's more than just a talking point for drivers.

[queenkjuul]

Gas prices affect very nearly everyone in America. High housing prices benefit the most vocal middle class constituencies (ie boomer homeowners)

Rent is a bigger consideration for most people i know, but most people i know take public transit.

Also keep in mind: people's rents don't suddenly triple in the span of a month when the president starts another illegal war... The shock value of gas, uh, shocks makes it easier to talk about than the slow relentless squeezing of the working class via rent increases that outpace inflation and wages