You're Working for Gas Now!

The people of Camden, Ala., pay a bigger chunk of their income for fuel than anyone else in the country - meaning tough choices for the ever thinner family budget. By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer CAMDEN, Ala. (CNNMoney.com) -- Corey Carter spends a quarter of his paycheck on gas. The 30-year old Carter, who earns $7 an hour making car parts for a Hyundai factory near Montgomery, Ala., spends $65 a week on gas, double what it cost just a few years ago. Paying $30 more for gas out of a $240 paycheck makes a big difference. "Going out to eat, going to the movies, you can't do stuff like that," says Carter, filling up his Firebird at a BP station in Camden, a quiet southern town 80 miles southwest of Montgomery. "You're working for gas now." Carter, and other residents that live around Camden, are having a particularly hard time - they devote more of their budget for gas than anyone else in the United States. So, like Americans everywhere, people here are cutting back on spending, and that's threatening to send - or may have already sent - a shaky economy into recession. For people like Carrie Frye, 33, a mother who commutes 70 miles each day, the choice is about . . . read more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/24/news/economy/camden_alabama/index.htm?eref=ib_topstories