Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 10/11/26
"The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Destroyed"
"Almost every American dreams of a comfortable middle-class life. The problem is that for years now, prices have been climbing faster than paychecks, and holding on to a middle-class standard of living has started to feel like a cruel game of musical chairs: every time the music stops, there are fewer seats left. And the next major economic downturn is coming at us fast.
Owning a home has always been at the heart of the middle-class dream, yet homes have never been this far out of reach. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average sales price of a new home hit $502,700 in the second quarter of 2026, while 30-year mortgage rates sit well above 7%. For most young families, those numbers simply do not work anymore. Today, 25.2 million adults under the age of 35 are living with their parents, and roughly 7 out of 10 of the 25 to 34 year olds who are still at home actually have jobs. They are working, but they still cannot afford a place of their own. Renters are being squeezed just as hard. A record 22.7 million renter households are now cost-burdened, and 12.1 million of them are spending more than half of their income just to keep a roof over their heads. Over the past decade, the number of apartments renting for less than $1,000 a month has collapsed from 8.3 million to just 5.8 million. When there is nowhere left to go, people start living in their vehicles. About 486,000 Americans now live full-time in RVs, more than double the number from 2021, and estimates suggest that somewhere between 1 and 3 million Americans regularly sleep in cars, vans or campers.
Meanwhile, the paychecks are not keeping up. Real average hourly earnings are lower than they were a year ago, wage growth has slowed to its weakest pace since 2021, and the September jobs report showed just 29,000 new jobs. Consumer confidence has plunged to its lowest level since 2014, and the expectations index has been sitting in recession territory for well over a year. Only 63% of American adults could cover a surprise $400 expense with cash, 47.9 million Americans live in food-insecure households, and total household debt is hovering near $18.8 trillion, with credit card balances alone at $1.26 trillion and delinquencies rising. Economist Peter Schiff has been warning that the middle class is being taxed far more heavily than anyone was ever supposed to tax the rich, and that every time the government is handed more power in the name of fairness, it is the middle class that ends up paying the price. In this video, we go through the hard numbers behind the systematic destruction of the American middle class, what they mean for your family, and what you can do right now to protect yourself before the next downturn hits."
Comments here:
No comments:
Post a Comment