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It does depend on commute distance and type of vehicle. I know lots of people that commute a little over 150 miles every day in a pickup truck (constuction worker) to get to work. That's about 10 gallons every day at 15mpg. So $3.50 per gallon is $35 a day. $5 a gallon would be $50 a day. And $23 per gallon would be $230 dollars per day. Multiply that by 6 (sometimes 7) workdays per week (about 26 days a month) and $3.50 is $910 per month, $5 would be $1,300 per month, and $23 would be $5,960 per month for the commute.
The reason people commute like that is because of the rising cost of living in certain areas. We're talking some $6,000 per month in wages, but in the area where there's work, $4,000 per month or higher rents for a 2 bedroom apartment. But 75 miles away you can get a place for under $1,000 per month. So $1,000 plus $910 plus whatever other per-mile driving expenses still works out to a lot less than $4,000.
If prices reached some $23 per gallon around here I'm not sure what would happen. The labor shortage would definitely rise even higher, cost of materials would skyrocket and rents would likely skyrocket as well. Wages allways seem like the last thing to rise.
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