Why is $5/gallon Gas a Pain Point?

I drove past several gas stations with gas at $4.999/gallon today, aka $5. That is a magical pain point for many people in the US. For some reason, only at $5 a gallon, masses of people begin to realize it's pretty expensive to own a car. Even a trivial trip, or god forbid, a long daily commute is observable cost. "Oh that was $10 in just gas" people will think.

At some point, though, gas prices kill the economy overall and oil prices will plunge again. That happened in the early 2000s with more empire wars in the middle east. I can't recall the peak oil price, but around 2007, crude hit something like $150/barrel. Gas got somewhere around $5/gallon back then too. I don't recall the details though.... that all led to the exposure of the big financial crime wave of the day, aka "a crisis".

Average mom and pop people can ignore certain expenses, but probably not gas and food. Eventually high cost of basic necessities squeezes the rest of the BS out of the economy... Can't afford gas--cancel Netflix and Hulu etc.... Can't buy groceries? No more crap from Amazon then.

I think they'll keep this dumb-fuck war going for quite a while. Americans have very little control over their own government.