A survey this summer by LendingTree has found many Americans are hard-pressed financially, even to the point of tears.
The survey, taken of nearly 1,600 Americans last month by LendingTree, found that 40 percent said their finances in the past year were so bad that they cried about them, with that figure rising to 53 percent among millennials, defined in the survey as being between the ages of 26 and 41.
Of those who wept over their finances, 46 percent said it was because they could not afford what their family wants or needs.
Rising prices have already hit restaurants and households.
Now, school lunchrooms are having to raise their prices or serve limited menus as students head back to school this fall.
Joe Biden’s America.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) August 18, 2022
“It’s a very simple, yet powerful reason, and it speaks to the insidiousness of inflation. Most Americans want to be able to provide for their family. That gets much harder when the most fundamental costs of life — gas, groceries, cars — get pricier,” Lending Tree’s report on the survey said.
“When you can no longer easily afford the most basic of bills, it’s easy to feel like things are out of your control, and that’s often when the tears start to flow.”
Inflation is crushing the grocery budgets of Americans across the U.S., with food prices accelerating to a new four-decade high in July. https://t.co/TNhqA3BqSD #FoodNews #FoodPrices #Inflation
— Xtalks Food (@XtalksFood) August 18, 2022
Meredith Wilson, chief executive officer of Emergent Risk International, said food prices are a major drain on finances because costs accumulate along the way, according to Fox Business.
“Inflation accumulates as it makes its way through the supply chain,” Wilson said. “In the end, the products that they buy at the store are a triple whammy — pricing in inflation for all of the inputs and costs before it gets to them — the consumer.”
Dealing with higher prices on a fixed budget “can be very difficult and lead to them cutting back on healthier foods and products, which tend to be more expensive, leaving them buying lower quality and lower nutrition foods,” Wilson said.
According to the LendingTree survey, inflation was the reason that 39 percent of respondents cried, while 34 percent said debt pushed them to tears.
Some groups were more likely to cry over money than others.
Fifty-nine percent of those who were unemployed said they did so, as did 52 percent of women and 53 percent of parents who have children under 18.
The survey found 33 percent of overall respondents expect to cry about money in the next six months, with that number rising to 43 percent for parents who have children under 18. Among women and millennials, 41 percent said the next six months will bring tears over money.
Davidson College economics professor Vikram Kumar said anyone hoping the so-called Inflation Reduction Act will curb inflation should think again.
Biden claims that under the “Inflation Reduction Act” no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a penny more in federal taxes.
FACTS: The misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act” will cost the middle class at least $20 billion in new taxes, according to the nonpartisan CBO. pic.twitter.com/zUNtC3txpJ
— Cali2 (@WTP_USA1) August 18, 2022
When asked if he thought the new law would stop inflation, he wrote on the school’s website: “Unfortunately, I don’t. It’s a terribly misnamed piece of legislation that is probably better called the Inflation Irrelevance Act! The Congressional Budget Office has done some scoring and they basically said that the rate of inflation is going to be changed imperceptibly — like one 10th of a percentage point, down or up.”
LendingTree’s report surveyed 1,598 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 76 online from July 8 to 15.
The inflation rate in the United States was 8.5 percent in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number hit 9.1 percent in June, the highest rate since 1981.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.