[Strangler Lewis]

The Ben Stein article is fine as far as it goes, but most people hurt by high gas prices are a long way from retired. I know a number of families that have cut off their balls--i.e., sold their Tahoes, Silverados, etc. and downsized to minivans or bought a smaller used car for errands--because they can't afford to fill up the tank.

The price of food has also gone up, both because of increases in the price of gas and the price of wheat. I suppose the answer would be that most of the processed foods that Americans are killing themselves with are ultimately owned by Phillip Morris and the like who might be part of their 401k.

This assumes that most Americans are contributing sufficiently to 401k, which they are not. Rather, many are living paycheck to paycheck and running up credit cards. Of course, now that MasterCard and Visa have gone public, this is obviously a good thing.