Our Standard Of Living Is Collapsing And 25 Percent Of U.S. Households Are Skipping Meals So They Will Have Enough Money To Pay Their Bills

Are you old enough to remember when you could buy a really nice house for less than $50,000? Today, the average price of a home in the United States is more than half a million dollars. Of course everything else has become dramatically more expensive as well. I just asked Google, and I was told that the average cost of health insurance for a single person in the United States was just $2,655 in the year 2000. That was for an entire year! Our standard of living has been collapsing for a long time, but at first most people didn’t realize what was happening. But now things are so bad that YouTube and TikTok are filled with thousands of videos of normal people complaining about the cost of living. Unfortunately, I am entirely convinced that things are only going to get tougher as economic conditions continue to deteriorate all around us.

Earlier today, I came across a shocking new survey which discovered that 25 percent of U.S. households are skipping meals so that they will have enough money to pay their bills…

Twenty-five percent of respondents say they or someone in their household has skipped meals to save money in the past year—numbers that rose to nearly 4 in 10 for Hispanics (41 percent) and nearly 3 in 10 for Blacks (29 percent). The youngest Americans surveyed, ages 18–34, are by far the most likely to have skipped meals to pay bills (38 percent), and rates were similarly high for those in households with income below $50,000 per year (39 percent).

25 percent of the country doesn’t have enough food to eat!

How can you possibly spin that number to make it look good?

Let’s get real.

In June, the average price of a pound of ground beef actually surpassed the six dollar mark…

The average price for a pound of ground beef in the Northeast rose to more than $6.05 in June, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a high point in records dating back to 2015.

The price was up more than 10% from June 2024 and more than 3.4% from May. The price jump for beef from May was the biggest among a group of common grocery items that also included eggs, chicken, milk, bread and butter.

When I was growing up, my mother was constantly feeding us ground beef.

Now it has become a “luxury meat” that most Americans cannot afford on a regular basis.

If you can’t see that our standard of living is declining, I don’t know what to tell you.

The same survey that I quoted earlier also found that millions upon millions of Americans are spending a great deal of time worrying about their finances…

A shocking 1 in 4 Americans (24 percent) say they spend at least three hours on a typical day worrying about their finances and ability to afford basic necessities. More than 4 in 10 spend at least one hour per day. Millennials and GenZers are experiencing the greatest anxiety, with 56 percent and 50 percent, respectively spending one hour or more per day focused on financial concerns. While low- and middle-income Americans express the strongest financial concerns, one-third of those with incomes above $100,000 also spend at least an hour concerned about their finances on a typical day.

Most of us want to live the American Dream.

But the American Dream is out of reach for most of the population at this stage.

Back in 1975, the average price of a home in Spokane, Washington was just $22,450…

A Spokane cost of living survey showed that the average rental price of two-bedroom apartment was $135 per month, and the average purchase price for a house was $22,450, The Spokesman-Review reported on July 20, 1975.

Today, $22,450 won’t even cover the average monthly mortgage payment for one year…

Since 2017, the salary needed to buy a home in America has more than doubled.

Fueled by rising unaffordability and high mortgage rates, home buyers need to shell out $2,500 on average for monthly payments. Meanwhile, this soars past $5,000 in coastal cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

Housing has become more unaffordable than it has ever been in our entire history, and that is the number one reason why Americans are so financially stressed right now.

In the old days, we were told to always follow “the 30 percent rule”, but now that is realistic in only a handful of the top metropolitan areas in the United States…

The 30% rule — one in which potential homebuyers limit their mortgage payment to 30% of their monthly income — is a common standard that homebuyers typically follow so that the yearly cost of a home doesn’t put too much of a strain on their finances.

However, according to a new report from Realtor.com, places where homebuyers can follow that recommendation when buying a home are becoming fewer and farther between in the country’s major metropolitan areas.

Affordability in just three of America’s 50 top metro areas is such that households that make the median income can scoop up a home that won’t go above 30% of their yearly earnings, the report found.

Utility bills are rapidly rising as well.

In fact, it is being reported that electricity prices spiked by an average of 6 percent during the first half of this year…

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the average price of electricity per kilowatt-hour has risen from $0.179 in January to $0.190 as of June—an increase of around 6 percent.

Between January and February, prices remained steady, according to BLS data. But between February and April, prices rose slightly to $0.181, and then marginally again in May to $0.182.

According to the BLS’s data, prices then jumped noticeably in June to $0.190.

Just about everything has been getting more expensive, and that explains why 83 percent of Americans are experiencing “stressflation”…

A LifeStance Health survey released today reveals “stressflation” is affecting most Americans, with 83% reporting financial stress driven by inflation, mass layoffs, the rising cost of living and recession fears. Millennials and Gen Z report the most significant mental health impacts.

And a different survey discovered that more than 80 percent of middle income Americans expect prices to continue to rise…

But two-thirds of middle-income Americans are bracing for a recession within a year.

More than eight in 10 expect prices to keep rising.

And nearly two-thirds of middle-income Americans who recently bought a home said they are living paycheck to paycheck.

Sadly, I am convinced that things are going to get even tougher because economic activity is slowing down and employers are conducting mass layoffs all over the nation.

In some cases, large employers have actually been conducting multiple rounds of mass layoffs.

For example, Intel has already been through a couple of mass cullings…

Intel this month officially began to cut down its workforce in the U.S. and other countries, thus revealing actual numbers of positions to be cut. The Oregonian reports that the company will cut as many as 2,392 positions in Oregon and around 4,000 positions across its American operations, including Arizona, California, and Texas.

To put the 2,392 number into context, Intel is the largest employer in Oregon with around 20,000 of workers there. 2,392 is around 12% of the workforce, which is a lower end of layoff expectations, yet 2,400 is still a lot of people. The Oregon reduction rose sharply from an initial count of around 500 to a revised figure of 2,392, making it one of the largest layoffs in the state’s history. Intel began reducing staff earlier in the week but confirmed the larger number by Friday evening through a filing with Oregon state authorities.

Intel’s Oregon operations have already seen 3,000 jobs lost over the past year through earlier buyouts and dismissals.

Not to be outdone, there have been three waves of mass layoffs at Microsoft…

In an ongoing effort to trim its workforce, Microsoft said as much as 4%, or roughly 9,000, of the company’s employees could be affected by Wednesday’s layoffs. In Washington, 830 employees were let go, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday.

The move follows two waves of layoffs in May and June, which saw Microsoft let go of more than 6,000 employees, almost 2,300 of whom were based in Washington.

Since May, the company has laid off over 15,000 employees companywide and more than 3,100 in Washington.

But Disney takes the cake.

Within the past ten months, they have conducted four rounds of mass layoffs…

Early this month the company pushed out several hundred workers from its marketing for both film and television, television publicity, and its casting and development departments.

It was the fourth round of layoffs in the last ten months and came about a month after 200 employees were eliminated in March.

The layoffs in March hit Disney’s ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks unit. That round of layoffs even included the elimination of its once popular “538” website.

A lot of people out there like to criticize me, but they can’t deny the facts that I present because I carefully document them in all of my articles.

After reading all of the facts that I have documented in this article, it should be clear to everyone that our standard of living has been collapsing.

And if we stay on the road that we are currently on, that collapse will accelerate significantly.

No matter how hard we may try, we cannot escape the law of cause and effect.

For every action that we take, there is a consequence.

Unfortunately for us, the consequences for our very foolish actions are starting to catch up with us in a major way.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.