You are forgetting one little detail sir.
I don't have to buy any of the products you listed in your post. They can make the price of Diet Snapple one hundred dollars a bottle for all I care.
But...
I HAVE to buy gas, no matter how expensive it gets!
NO CHOICE! Get It? And that hurts!
All the dollars that I and millions of other Americans pump into the gas tank leave less money for the things you listed and the economy in turn will suffer if these prices continue to rise!