Beyond that, the economy feels so bad for so many because it feels so bad for so many. Downturns tend to cause concentrated economic pain for a few, leaving many others unscathed; this was true in the Great Recession and the COVID recession, as massive as they both were and as high as the unemployment rate climbed during each. Most Americans did not lose their jobs, and wealthy Americans, in particular, were unlikely to be unemployed. Everyone experienced the fear of living through an economic crisis, with many people suffering from reduced employment opportunities, lower wage growth, and so on. But the pain was uneven.
In contrast, nobody escapes inflation, even if rising prices affect some people far more than others. That includes people on fixed incomes, such as retirees. It also includes lower-income families, who have less room in their budgets to absorb higher prices, as well as fewer opportunities to cut costs by switching from nice goods to bargain-basement ones, than higher-income families do. Indeed, the lower part of the income spectrum has been experiencing higher rates of inflation than the upper part, as well as struggling with it more, dollar-for-dollar.
Today’s inflation comes on top of a long-simmering affordability crisis, too. The price of housing is sapping budgets and forcing families to make awful decisions to keep down costs: living far away from family, commuting long distances, giving up on having a third kid, renting forever instead of ever trying to buy. The costs of child care, elder care, higher education, and medical care remain outrageous as well—affecting families far up the income scale, though of course those at the bottom are the most burdened.
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