A new CNN poll sum up Americans’ feelings about the economy: They just feel stuck – CNN Politics

‘My life is not affordable. No one cares’

76% of Americans call cost-of-living issues their biggest economic problem

By Jennifer Agiesta, Annette Choi, Ariel Edwards-Levy, Edward Wu, and David Goldman, Updated 8 hr ago

“It’s more expensive to exist.”

“You’re just staying afloat instead of getting ahead.”

“It should not be like this.”

Those responses to a new CNN poll sum up Americans’ feelings about the economy: They just feel stuck.

CNN’s poll, conducted by SSRS, finds a surge in people naming high prices and the cost of living as the top economic problem facing their family. Strong majorities are pessimistic about the economy as a whole — almost 7 in 10 believe a recession is likely in the next year — and about their own ability to cover expenses and make purchases.

Those negative feelings about the economy, with major political implications for the midterms, reflect the strain across economic, generational and partisan lines on Americans’ everyday lives. Many people are trimming their grocery lists and cutting back spending on extras, and few feel comfortably able to save.

Americans feel a prevailing sense of economic uncertainty and precarity

A widening wealth gap in the United States has insulated the overall economy from a downturn. Stripping away gas prices and inflation, consumers continued to increase their spending during the first month of the Iran war. Part of the reason is that paycheck growth has outpaced inflation each month for nearly three years — a streak that was broken in April.

But averages don’t tell the full story: Middle-income and lower-income Americans’ wages stopped outpacing inflation last year, according to Bank of America.

That’s left many Americans in a sour mood about their financial prospects.

The public has held a negative view of the economy for five straight years in CNN’s polling. There’s a near-universal sense that the current economic moment is a better time to save than to spend on major purchases: Eighty-eight percent feel that way, including more than 8 in 10 across income brackets.

Perceptions of the economy went south shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly because prices rose sharply and the housing market froze. Although inflation has come back down in recent years, job growth has remained surprisingly strong and consumer spending has stayed robust, people haven’t yet adjusted to higher prices. Many feel left out of an unaffordable housing market.

Cost of living is a major concern across the board

Note: Response may be edited for length, grammar and clarity.

Source: CNN/SSRS polling

Americans from all backgrounds name cost of living as their primary financial concern in an open-ended question.

Worries about the costs of food and gas are particularly prominent, with the share specifically naming gas prices rising from 5% a year ago to 23% now.

About one-third of Americans say they worry all or most of the time that their income won’t be enough to meet their expenses, with another 42% saying they worry about that at least some of the time.

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