Not all that long ago, I remember being shocked after hearing some kind of news report suggesting that roughly half of Americans - I think it was just shy of 50 percent - were living paycheck to paycheck.
That number has apparently shifted. But it has gone in the wrong direction. Now, up to 64 percent - nearly two-thirds - of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. This, despite wage growth being historically high, yet not keeping up with an even faster growing cost of living, due to record inflation. Here are some snippets taken from the article linked below:
While wage growth is high by historical standards, it isn’t keeping up with the increased cost of living, which is growing at the fastest annual pace in about four decades.
“Wages are up 5.1% over the past year, which is trailing the pace of inflation,” said Bankrate.com senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick. “Indeed, surging prices are stealing the show on the minds of consumers.”
How much longer can we ignore these kinds of statistics? How much longer can we avoid recognizing that we are going in a very wrong direction in the country, that this is unsustainable? Clearly, there is something wrong with what we are doing, and where we are going. And we sure are not getting any solutions from our so-called political leaders, who continually grin and try to convince us that they are helping the country go in the right direction, regardless of party affiliation.
The more news like this we see, the clearer it becomes that this just is not working.
This is starting to get really scary. Frankly, I just do not see how this is sustainable, even in the relative short-term future.
Below is the link to the CNBC article which I used in writing this particular blog entry:
As inflation heats up, 64% of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck by Jessica Dickler,, March 8 2022:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/08/as-prices-rise-64-percent-of-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck.html
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