America has more people struggling financially than people who are not necessarily struggling. According to CNBC news “70% of Americans admit to being stressed about their personal finances these days and a majority 52% of U.S. adults said their financial stress has increased since before the Covid-19 pandemic”. This is stating that 70% of people in America say they are strained financially these days in particular. Around 52% of America say their finances have worsened or deteriorated since the Covid Pandemic. As I see it, there’s a clear social scale in America, having high, middle and lower class citizens. Unsettlingly there are more people in the lower class and more people who are struggling than those who are in the higher or middle class.
Inflation is a huge justification for people who are often struggling more than usual. You may ask why is inflation causing Americans to struggle? The interpretation of inflation is “a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.” I’m sure it’s self explanatory but an increase in prices could hurt Americans due to low income. Another reason why inflation plays a huge part in this is because the value of money has dropped. A 100 dollar bill isn’t worth all that much anymore because of prices increasing. If you were to compare and contrast the value of money from lets say the 70’s, you would see how 100 dollars holds much more value then than 100 dollars in today’s world. Another claim due to inflation could be according to the New York Times “Some 35 percent of Americans said they were worse off than a year earlier”. This quote is inferring that as inflation rises more prices increase meaning more money lost.
Another reason people are struggling in America is because of high medicare, low paying wage, spending problems, debt, bad credit, etc. High medicare is a problem because many people can’t afford it but medicare is a necessity for more than half of America.
Low wages play a part because most people don’t make as much money and due to prices rising people are more likely to spend more money on basic necessities such as toothpaste, soap, food, etc. Society is making lower class people struggle more than needed. I say this because lower class people don’t have many material resources and they also have fewer opportunities nowadays. They don’t have many opportunities because the higher or middle class people are taking them. The higher class people take up most of the job opportunities that could potentially be for the lower class.
Ways I think the world or our community can help is if we can lower inflation it would benefit the community because then things won’t cost as much leading people to not spending too much. I also think we could help by setting up resources to help the community such as offering low income homes, setting up food pantries so people aren’t spending as much money on groceries , lowering medicare , and making jobs pay higher. I feel this will work because if we lower housing costs many more people can afford to live in homes, and lowering medicare will lessen the debt people have to pay.With the reasons being stated, I think that inflation is the main reason why more people in America are financially struggling than those who aren’t struggling.
Lundyn Eubanks – Fenwick High School – DMSF Class of 2027