Everyone is battling inflation today. Grocery prices rose 12% from one year ago and eggs rose a whopping 50%!
Nearly three out of every four middle-class families say what they earn can’t keep up with inflation. Inflation is hardest on those with the least though.
Poor and low-income families such as elderly people on fixed budgets, struggle most from rising prices. They spend more of their income proportionally on items like groceries and home heating costs.
January is Poverty Awareness Month. While near-historic inflation shrinks the paychecks of middle-class earners and forces households to pay more for less, it robs those with the least means of economic security and quality of life.
Some 25.5 million people — 7.8% of the U.S. population — were in poverty in 2021. This includes 3.8 million children. Hunger and food insecurity have skyrocketed because of inflation.
Traditional sources of help such as food banks are under strain from high prices of food and greater demand from individuals and families.
Meanwhile, government spending programs grow significantly but poverty rates remain.
Much of the inflation that exploded beginning in the spring of 2021 is attributed to massive federal spending bills that sent cash payments and generous benefits to American households, even though most did not need them.
Economists at the San Francisco Federal Reserve even point to how so much federal stimulus spending accelerated inflation in the U.S. while inflation remained low around the rest of the world.
Inflation is like a tax on earners. Nearly two years into battling high inflation, many families have been forced to spend down their savings and are now making tough decisions — choosing between necessities like heat, food, or medicine.
The policymakers responsible for inflationary federal spending are glad for this issue to fade from the headlines. At IWF we will not just move on but keep your stories of hardship front and center so that no American family gets left behind.
