OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
1:43 PM – Wednesday, January 31, 2024
While Wall Street is setting records, those on Main Street claim to be barely scraping by. Many citizens even maintain that they are “living paycheck to paycheck,” according to the latest Issues and Insights/TIPP Poll.
According to an Issues and Insights/TIPP (I&I/TIPP) Poll that was released on Wednesday morning, 64%, or two-thirds of American voters, stated that they are “living paycheck to paycheck.”
I&I/TIPP is known for reporting “timely, unique, and informative data” every month regarding a wide range of topics that interest the general public, according to their website.
In the most recent I&I/TIPP Poll, which was conducted from January 3rd through January 5th of this year, among 1,401 registered voters, representing nearly two-thirds of Americans, stated that they are “living ‘paycheck to paycheck’ these days,” despite the fact that the United States is still considered to be a wealthier nation in comparison to other countries.
The margin of error for the poll was +/-2.6 percentage points.
Democrat politicians appear befuddled by the overall disregard for what they perceive to be “Bidenomics’ achievements” regarding the economy. However, Americans are still facing extreme financial hardships, even if the economy has recovered slightly since the COVID-19 era.
The surprising outcome comes at a time when many politicians and members of Wall Street are praising new data that claims strong growth in the fourth quarter, as well as a slowing rate of inflation.
However, in the poll, 63% of Democrats, 67% of Republicans, and 62% of Independents said that they are “barely getting by” with each paycheck they receive.
Additionally, 53% of poll-takers in the wealthiest income bracket, which include those who make at least “$75,000 or more” annually, also maintained that they struggle to make ends meet on a monthly basis. The wealthier earners blamed childcare, housing, food, travel, and entertainment expenses.
68% of American voters with lower incomes, defined as those earning less than $70,000 annually, also said that they were struggling to make ends meet. Nonetheless, that polling result was less surprising.
In terms of race, 62% of White Americans and 69% of Black and Hispanic Americans similarly admitted that they are facing “financial difficulty with each paycheck.”
The I&I/TIPP Poll posed an even more dire question, “How much money do you have in savings that you could use in an emergency?” in an effort to bring more attention to this issue.
Individual responses were used to group the answers, which were according to dollar value:
The following categories available were: “$0,” “less than $1000,” “1,000 to $4,999,” “5,000 to $9,999,” “10,000 to $19,999,” “20,000 to $49,999,” and “$50,000 or more.” An alternative response would be “prefer not to answer.”
As a result, the answer of this question was a worrisome 24% of all Americans who responded “$0.”
At the same time, 14% responded with less than $5,000, and 20% gave a response of less than $1,000. Of the respondents, 44% had less than $1,000 or had none at all. Even after accounting for the wealthiest citizens of the United States, the median savings amount was only around $1,586.
In conclusion, Americans seem to be unprepared for any sort of financial emergencies, at least in economic terms.
The data is shocking to many, especially considering the fact that politicians on both the right and left continue to tell U.S. citizens that “they’ve never had it so good,” which is far from the truth, according to economists.
“Experts, from the time I got elected, were insisting that a recession was just around the corner. Every month, there was going to be a recession,” President Joe Biden said on Saturday, chuckling as he mentioned the fourth quarter’s 3.3% GDP growth.
Due to this, Americans lack a safety net to shield them from sudden drops in the economy.
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