A plethora of data points show the consumer is absolutely miserable: real wages trend lower, cost of living skyrockets, the employment market softens, savings rate collapses, credit cards maxed out, and the US economy falls into the “technical definition” of recession.
Capturing the plunge in consumer sentiment (at record lows) is a new Gallup survey that reveals a record number of Americans are “suffering.”
Gallup’s Life Evaluation Index measures the quality of life of Americans by asking respondents if they’re “thriving,” “struggling,” or “suffering.” The survey is between 0 to 10. Those who check four or below are classified as suffering; seven or higher is thriving.
The poll found that 5.6% of Americans rate their lives as “suffering,” the highest since the index’s inception in 2008.
The percentage of respondents classified as thriving fell to 51.2% in July from a record high of 59.2% in June 2021. The number of people thriving is at an 18-month low. The lowest reading of respondents thriving was 46.4%, which was only measured twice, the first in November 2008 and the second in the early covid months (April 2020).
For the last 16 consecutive months, consumers have been crushed by four-decade high inflation as it eats away wage gains.
Elevated suffering rates come as the $6 trillion-plus in covid stimulus funds from 2020 has cycled through the retail chain and out of people’s pockets. It’s gone, and the massive increase in economic activity triggered is also over. The hangover stage of the covid helicopter money period is materializing — the only suffering will only worsen from here until another round of stimmy checks is seen.
It’s time to exit the rat-race…
This is amazing pic.twitter.com/dAU8uFrpUv
— Council Estate Socialism (@RickyDHale) August 21, 2022
via unsilencednews
