The Declining Standard of Living in the US

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Prices are up, rent is up, everything is too damn high. It’s getting harder for families to afford the basics of life and people are using credit cards to handle the inflation crunch. Workers are looking for better jobs but let’s face it, the middle and bottom parts of the economy are going to lose a great deal. The standard of living is being eaten away by income inequality and now inflation. In the past two years we have gone from a deflationary period, with very little money moving through the market to extreme inflation. However, inflation is not the focus I want to think about today. I’d like to focus on the overall declining standard of living in our country.

Housing

Anyone who has bought a house or signed a lease in the last several years will tell you that the “rent is too damn high.” An average 1 bedroom is at around $1,200 a month nationwide and it is much more expensive in major cities and on the coasts. Covid has allowed many wealthy workers to leave cities and set out for the provinces. They are buying up and renting out housing at an accelerated rate which is pushing up prices and shoving out locals. For many, this is merely shifting a problem that cities have faced out to the suburbs and exurbs. Mountain towns and anywhere with a view are struggling with a major housing crunch.

How more dynamic could our cities be if housing was affordable? I know it is not a popular thing to say in the post-Covid era where we are experimenting with hybrid work and work-from-home but talent gathering together still has value. How much better could things be if the people who wanted to live in/near a city could actually afford to do so?

How much money is being sucked out of the economy due to these rents? The quality of our housing has not gone up, the only thing forcing prices higher is market forces and nothing else. How many new companies, new ideas, and projects will never see the light of day because so many people are merely stuck trying to survive in this system? These are things we have to think about when it comes to standard of living.

Young people are trapped with their parents, with no way to move out on their own due to the expense. That is an opportunity cost all its own. How many people won’t be able to take the leap to start their own business or monetize their hobby because the price of housing is simply too high? But our standard of living is being attacked at other levels as well.

Government Services

When it comes to our how well our government does and does not handle the affairs of society, one need thing of nothing other than the pandemic to see how well that is going. The government failed to properly handle the pandemic over and over again. Now, as government services go, most places have all the services that a civilized society should have. However, we have a gun violence problem, a policing problem, and our paramedics are underpaid and overstretched. It is only a matter of time before that system falls apart.

Education has been in focus due to the pandemic. Teachers are leaving the profession and this fall will be a flash point when parents find out that most of the teachers have left for other jobs and their children are forced to learn in crowded class rooms without the services that their children need to be successful. As a reaction, parents will pull out their kids to go to charter schools, private school, or home schooling options. Calls for school choice will grow louder and our public school system will come under increasing pressure to either do better (with less) or be scrapped. This is a system that a democratic society cannot afford to lose and yet we are facing the real end of public education in this country. This is yet another area where our standard of living is falling.

Infrastructure has finally been addressed by the Biden administration but it will be years before all the issues of failing bridges, highways, and roads will be fully addressed. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has focused on racial equity during this whole process. That is certainly good progress, but having some faith that our bridges and roads won’t fall apart is something that seems to be a privilege rather than a basic right.

Food

Anyone who has done any food shopping in the last six months has noticed how prices have skyrocketed. With an increase in the price of fuel, supply chain issues throughout the system, and higher costs, food has gone up in price. For those on the lower end, they are shopping at Dollar Tree and Dollar General for more food and other goods. This also means that more people may be relying on SNAP (food stamps) benefits or simply doing without eating meals. This has a huge affect on children who then will rely more on schools for 1-2 meals of their day. Even for the middle class, economizations must be made to reduce the food bills. Between this cost of food and housing, all but the upper middle class and wealthy are feeling the squeeze in every area of the family budget. This means folks will be eating less and eating less healthy and cheaper options.

Pile on top of that problem, the phenomenon of food deserts and more people are struggling just to make sure that they can eat at all, much less anything that their body might actually be able to use or need. We have a food access problem as well as a food quality problem. This is a system that the U.S. should be able to get right and it simply cannot, or chooses not to get to right because it isn’t profitable.

Healthcare

I feel like I could just leave the heading in this part and leave it alone. We all know how bad the healthcare system is for most people, even those with insurance. There are high costs that grow ever-higher. There is limited access for most people. There are far too many people who, when polled, say the first thing they would do, if offered, would be to go to the dentist. That’s not a standard of living worthy of a country of our wealth and stature. Any movement on improving the standard of care or the cost of that care is stalled. Insurance companies will simply not allow any system to arise in which they will get put out of business and that means that the average standard of living when it comes to the health of the average American will continue to decline.

The Cost

And let’s also talk about stress, stress is the cause of numerous health issues. Housing insecurity is deeply stressful and that has future health issues and costs all over it. Food insecurity has health issues all its own as well. Our declining standard of living has real costs on everyday people and that is rarely factored in when we have these conversations.

FDR and the New Deal democrats focused in on the standard of living. Even Truman focused on the standard of living after World War II. However, we rarely have those conversations in this country now. People on Twitter will tritely point out that the median income of Americans is the highest it has ever been. Others will point out that many consumer goods are cheaper than ever. However, when it comes to basic food, shelter, healthcare, education, and daily living expenses, Americans are being squeezed over and over again and forced to accept a falling standard of living at increased expense. Those at the bottom end suffer the most.

Decrying the end of the Middle Class has become an election slogan from both parties but who is actually trying to do anything about it? We hear much about the Middle Class around election time but once the votes are cast, there is little talk about the Middle Class. The idea of a decent, middle class living is something that seems like a nice idea but is now out of reach for most Americans.

This is an economic tragedy. We don’t have to live this way. We don’t have to accept this as a reality but considering we aren’t hardly having the conversation, it is hard to make change until people demand it.