The Collapsing Household Budget (contraint)

Kissweb's piece on the impact of rising gas prices on income deserves more attention. This rests on the microeconomic theory of household consumption. If a household reaches an immutable credit contraint and fixed income, as prices of essentials rise, expenditures on discretionary items theoretically eventually reach zero. Subsequently, the budget constraint which sets the limit of household consumption shifts downward forcing households to make tradeoffs among necessity goods, i.e. the classic case of seniors skipping meals to afford essential drugs. Signals of this economic syndrome such as identified by Kissweb are increasing (food, healthcare), contributing to the obvious deterioration of the economic position of households in the lower half of the US income distribution. More analysis here would be fruitful.