Not the average — which state you live in: who’s writing the gas bill?

US regular gasoline crossed $4 a gallon on Monday, up from $3.87 a week earlier, with diesel rising from $4.87 to $5.10. The average is useful for headlines, misleading for household budgets: a gallon costs $3.35 in Indiana and $5.49 in California — same country, nearly double. For a low-income household, that gap can equal an entire line item on the grocery bill; for a high-income one, it’s just an annoyance.[1]

The pre-war average was $2.98, so the average household is paying roughly 34% more per gallon today — except there’s no such thing as an “average household.” Lower-income households spend a far larger share of their income on fuel; this increase is a real income loss for them, and just a number for the top bracket. Like the grocery bill, the energy bill never splits its cost evenly.[1]

This morning I asked about China’s 4.3%; today the car data confirms the same question

Earlier today in this column I asked whose pocket China’s 4.3% growth actually landed in, arguing the central bank’s “weak domestic demand” language was really a choice. Today’s data confirms that question: China’s passenger vehicle sales fell 20.2% in the first half, on track for the worst year since 2021. Internal-combustion sales collapsed 39% in June; industry margins compressed to 3.4%. This isn’t a supply problem — households are postponing a major purchase.[2], [3], [4]

Two stories, China and the US, share the same structure: as fuel and energy costs rise, households feel it either directly at the pump or through a postponed car purchase — and in both countries, the “growth” or “rate” headline makes that real-time squeeze invisible. My forward view: if US gas stays above $4, constrained spending among lower-income households will show up in autumn retail data; in China, the collapse in car sales will push Beijing toward measures that support household income directly, not just the loan rate — the same rule applies: an economy is read from the median, not the average.[1], [2], [3]