One of the cliched things political candidates get asked on the campaign trail is how much a gallon of milk costs. It's a shorthand for "do you know what everyday people's everyday expenses are like?" But as this infographic reminds us, the exact same dollar value means very different things to different people. At minimum wage, you'll have to work for half an hour to buy a gallon of milk, which makes it a significant purchase, one to be weighed against your other daily needs, to be carefully budgeted for or to be overtaken by events.
Mitt Romney might be able to memorize the price of a gallon of milk and spit it out correctly. He might even be able to restrain himself from adding that he has some friends who own milk companies. But correctly naming the price is something very different than actually understanding the cost in stress and worry and just plain work of living on $7.25 an hour. If your memories of struggle involve living off a stock portfolio your father set up for you, it's tough to understand. But if you think living off your stock portfolio really did constitute struggle, you're not even trying to understand.
(Via)