The Middle-Class Squeeze
A Picture of Stagnant Incomes, Rising Costs, and What We Can Do to Strengthen America’s Middle Class
via The Middle-Class Squeeze | Center for American Progress.
The above presents the case for a struggling middle-class. You should read the full report.
I see the data and all the numbers, I read over and over how the middle-class is struggling and yet it is so hard to see the practical everyday evidence. The examples point to rising costs for essentials like housing, food and clothing. But what about money spent on all those things well beyond essentials? What about the difference between needs and wants and desires?
I recently traveled across the Country stopping in vacation areas and many small towns along the way. Several times the hotels were sold out. Restaurant after restaurant was crowded, some too crowded to even wait for a table. National parks were crowded even off-season, there were no rooms in any lodge in Yellowstone.
Did you know the struggling middle-class is expected to spend over $7 billion on Halloween this year $350 million of that on pet costumes … and this stuff (look at prices)?
Spending at retailers may be down, but how much of that spending was necessary and how much non-essential? Could it be that many Americans were living beyond their means and now we are back to reality … to a relative level of spending comparable to say Europeans?
I counted the number of nail salons within a mile of my home, I gave up at twenty. What’s up with that? How do they stay in business? Who has money to spend on manicures or in the half-dozen Starbucks within four miles of where I live? 😎
How Americans spend their money; click here
I may be a bit old fashion and fiscally conservative (forget the may be), but it seems to me a lot of money is wasted these days on just plain stuff‼️ Stuff that is nice to have, but not essential, just more stuff.
Reduced spending may not be good for the economy, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad for the individual family.
What is your opinion? Are middle-class Americans hurting or are they adjusting to a more realistic living standard?
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 