According to “Half of Americans Struggle to Pay Rent or Mortgage, With Gen Z Hit Hardest,” “The living expenses in the U.S. exceed more than 40% of the average income for the average family.”
The cost of living in the U.S. is gradually becoming less and less affordable.
Many typical, everyday Americans struggle financially. Whether it’s surviving paycheck to paycheck or collecting checks from the government, 55% percent of citizens have some sort of debt or monetary issues. From the article “America’s Cost-of-Living Crisis Is a Wage Problem, Not a Price Problem” it states, “The affordability crisis is really a wage crisis. While the average paycheck has exceeded the price of cheap tradable goods (e.g. TVs, clothes), it has failed to keep pace with the exploding cost of essential services (e.g. housing, childcare, medical services). Recent surveys show that nearly three-quarters of American workers cannot afford anything beyond basic living expenses, with housing, health insurance and everyday essentials cited as the primary sources of financial stress.” This goes further in depth about the progressively growing prices in the US. It explains how even everyday things, even necessities, are becoming unaffordable and harder to reach. Rapidly rising prices, along with the economy, are fluctuating constantly. This is making it almost impossible to predict or even budget for many Americans.
Some people claim that inflation could be potentially good, especially for things like investing and flexibility within the economy. While small parts of these claims could be potentially true, a larger majority of people would disagree. With increasing inflation, the value of the dollar is promptly going down, as it also is eroding sales in the market. Disregarding essentials like gas and food, people just simply do not have the money for anything extra.
In summary, inflation is an increasing issue in the U.S. and inevitably will lead to larger, even more serious and detrimental, possibly even irreversible issues down the road.
