ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors begin with an estimation of lost purchasing power in current dollars, factor in assistance payments in current dollars, present an aggregate estimate of real purchasing power. Low income households accounted for about 7.5 percent of all expenditures for home energy in 1972–1973. The lower middle income groups accounted for about 11.7 percent of all expenditures for gasoline in 1972–1973. Energy assistance is not the only form of assistance that low and lower middle income households receive. Lower middle income households had lost about 20 percent of their real purchasing power. The loss for the lower income households has been much larger. The lower income group accounted for about 3.9 percent of all gasoline expenditures by households in 1972-1973 and about 4.4 percent in 1979-1980. The most explicit recognition of the burden that rising energy prices placed on lower income Americans came in the form of energy assistance.
