Death of the consumer economy: Over a third of U.S. adults now struggle to pay for their most basic expenses

When U.S. consumers are doing well, the U.S. economy does well.  But of course the opposite is also true.  When U.S. consumers are not doing well, the U.S. economy really suffers.  The government has been trying really hard to put a happy face on things, but the truth is that the standard of living for most U.S. consumers has been going down for a long time.  The cost of living has been rising faster than paychecks have, and so most of us have less discretionary income than we once did.  And that is really bad news for the U.S. economy, because as the official White House website has pointed out, consumer spending typically accounts for about two-thirds of all economic activity…

(Article republished from TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com)

Consumption spending makes up two-thirds of the U.S. economy on average, so as the U.S. consumer goes, so goes the U.S. economy.

For once, the White House has told us something that is actually accurate.  In the first quarter of 2024, consumer spending accounted for 68 percent of GDP.  It has been right around the two-thirds mark for many years, and that makes it one of the most stable numbers in economics.

Unfortunately, consumers are more financially stressed today than they have been in ages.  In fact, a survey that was recently conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau discovered that 37 percent of U.S. adults now struggle to pay for their most basic expenses each month…

About 37% of American adults are in households that found it somewhat or very difficult to pay for typical expenses between late June and late July, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

When you are barely able to pay for food, housing and other essentials, there is not going to be extra money to blow at retail stores and restaurants.  This is one of the primary reasons why so many retailers and restaurant chains are going bankrupt in 2024.

Of course the economic pain is not spread equally across the entire country.

Read more at: TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com