Thanks to a soaring stock market, the wealthy are feeling very good about things right now, but the rest of the country is really hurting. Homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded, the number of children that are suffering from hunger is rapidly growing, and more than 60 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. The mainstream media continues to insist that the economy is in good shape, but how can that possibly be true if nearly two-thirds of the entire nation is just barely scraping by? According to brand new numbers that were just released, the percentage of U.S. adults that live paycheck to paycheck has actually increased by 4 percent just since the month of March…
- Sixty-two percent of adults in December said they live paycheck to paycheck, up from 58 percent in March.
- Forty percent of consumers living paycheck to paycheck have super-prime credit scores.
- Fifty-seven percent of consumers who own credit cards are living paycheck to paycheck.
Yikes!
But even though most of the country is living on the edge financially, 96 percent of shoppers say that they plan to “overspend” this holiday season…
This year, holiday spending from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 is expected to increase between 3% and 4% over last year to a record total of $957.3 billion to $966.6 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.
Even as credit card debt tops $1 trillion, almost all — or 96% — of shoppers said they expect to overspend this season, a separate TD Bank survey found.
Half of consumers plan to take on more debt to cover those holiday expenses, according to another report by Ally Bank. Only 23% have a plan to pay it off within one to two months.
Are you kidding me?
Needless to say, those numbers are yet another confirmation of what I wrote about yesterday.
We just can’t help ourselves.
No matter how much we already have, we always feel the need to have more.
But even though we continue to spend more money, we certainly aren’t better off than in past years. Just check out these new poll numbers…
Almost half of voters say the Biden administration’s economic policies have hurt them and only 14 percent say they are better off, according to yet another poll that suggests President Joe Biden is struggling to get his message across ahead of next year’s election.
Even he realizes it, quietly benching the term ‘Bidenomics’ in speeches during the past month.
Overall, his economic policies have a 32-point disapproval rating in a new survey for Fox News, with far more voters feeling they have been hurt than helped.
The people that are doing better off are those at the very top of the economic food chain.
The stock market has been doing really well in recent weeks, but some experts are warning that this is just a temporary phenomenon.
In fact, Harry Dent is warning that “2024 is going to be the biggest single crash year we’ll see in our lifetimes”…
As the clock ticks closer to 2024, one outspoken economist is making a dire predication about the markets in the new year.
“Since 2009, this has been 100% artificial, unprecedented money printing and deficits; $27 trillion over 15 years, to be exact. This is off the charts, 100% artificial, which means we’re in a dangerous state,” Harry Dent told Fox News Digital. “I think 2024 is going to be the biggest single crash year we’ll see in our lifetimes.”
For some reason, he is pointing to the month of May as a time when things will get really bad…
“If I’m right, it is going to be the biggest crash of our lifetime, most of it happening in 2024. You’re going to see it start and be more obvious by May,” the analyst stressed. “So if you just get out for six to 12 months and stuff stays at the highest valuation history, maybe you miss a little more gains if I’m wrong. If I’m right, you’re going to save massive losses and be able to reinvest a year or year-and-a-half from now at unbelievably low prices and magnify your gains beyond compare.”
Of course predicting a stock market crash in 2024 isn’t exactly going out on a limb.
It is kind of like predicting that the sky will be blue or the Jets will stink.
At this stage, everyone can see that the stock market bubble is on borrowed time.
Meanwhile, the bottom of the economic food chain is already collapsing…
–1 out of 5 U.S. children already do not have enough food to eat.
-U.S. food banks are dealing with unprecedented demand.
-Homelessness in the United States is growing at the fastest pace ever recorded.
The homelessness crisis is particularly dire in the state of California.
If you can believe it, California accounts for almost half of all people living in the streets in the entire country…
California counted 181,399 people experiencing homelessness in January. Of those, 123,423 people (68%) were “unsheltered”, meaning living outside in tents, cars or other makeshift shelters, as opposed to indoor shelters or temporary setups. At 68%, the state has a greater share of its homeless population living outdoors than any other state and accounts for 49% of all people living on the streets in the US.
In most states, a majority of the homeless population is indoors. New York, for example, has one of the largest overall homeless populations, but only 4.9% were on the streets.
In my new book, I encourage those that are living in the state of California to consider relocating.
The state possesses immense natural beauty, but the left has turned it into a nightmare.
When an economic crisis arrives, it is those that are at the bottom of the food chain that often feel it first.
The bottom of the economic food chain in the United States is already collapsing, and it won’t be too long before those at the very top feel a tremendous amount of pain as well.
By Michael Snyder