There are slimmer chances among the middle-class and lower-income classes to spend money on luxurious stuff. With rising food costs and inflation meeting ends has become a problem for many households. Bringing food to the table has become a challenging task. And increased massively in a year.
Food Costs Are Higher Than Hourly Wage
Since the covid 19 pandemic hit the world, along with wages labor availability was decreased rapidly. Though employment increased in 2021, later inflation wrapped the country. And that reached a point where the majority asked for further stimulus checks and later were provided with that made life a little less miserable.
People worked two jobs to keep their families alive and most of them drowned in debt. Most middle-class families had to cut off their wants over needs, tourism business went down the hill. Because the majority was working towards putting food on the table rather than taking care of their mental health.
Later on, the stimulus checks stopped coming in and were further declared by the federal government it was unlikely to come, which caused chaos among the earning class who are trying hard to meet the ends. The food costs have increased up to 12.4%. And income decreased near to 25% a study shows. And make households weak to dive into their savings.
Not only food costs are higher but gas prices also hiked, which made it more difficult for people to use their personal vehicles for transportation, they traveled via public transport. The good news is inflation is coming down since November 2022, there are chances the prices of food and other essentials would come down. And the government has been asking people to save more than they can spend so that if anything happens again there would be an emergency fund to back them, and won’t have to turn to loans. Thus some states already have issued inflation relief funds.