(The Economic Collapse Blog)—Do you remember all of those people over the years that warned us that the cost of living would eventually spiral out of control? It turns out that they were right. Our leaders flooded the system with trillions upon trillions of new dollars, and now we have a real life nightmare on our hands. The value of the U.S. dollar has tanked, the price of silver is up more than 100 percent in 2025, and we are in the midst of a horrifying cost of living crisis that never seems to end. In particular, food prices have become exceptionally painful, and this is hitting those on the low end of the economic spectrum really hard.
The Century Foundation just conducted a survey that came up with some absolutely stunning results.
According to that survey, 34 percent of U.S. registered voters have skipped a meal in order to save money, and 29 percent of U.S. registered voters have “delayed or skipped medical care over the past year”…
- 29% of registered voters said they delayed or skipped medical care over the past year; including 49% of voters under 30 years old, 37% of Hispanic voters and 32% of Black voters.
- 24% said they delayed or skipped buying medicine prescribed by their doctor.
- 64% of poll respondents said they switched to cheaper groceries or cut back on groceries; including 79% of voters under 30 years old, 74% of Black voters, 72% of women, and 71% of Hispanic voters.
- 34% of registered voters said they’ve skipped a meal to save money, including 54% of voters younger than 30 years old, 44% of Black voters, 41% of Hispanic voters, and 39% of women.
- 48% of poll respondents said they tapped into savings to meet daily expenses, including 59% of voters younger than 30 years old, 57% of Hispanic voters, 55% of Black voters and 52% of women.
These numbers are crazy.
Large segments of the U.S. population are now going without the essentials because the cost of living has become so oppressive.
Are you starting to understand why I rant about this so much?
Tens of millions of Americans are really hurting right now.
Just look at what is happening to the price of ground beef. It now costs about three times as much as it did just 15 years ago…
When I was growing up, my mother was constantly feeding us ground beef.
Now it is considered to be a “luxury meat”.
Our standard of living is being steadily destroyed all around us.
Earlier today, I was shocked to learn that tickets for a Christmas program at a local Baptist church in Texas are selling for up to 71 dollars per person…
A Christmas show at a church in Plano, Texas, has become a flash point in America – a Rorschach test in today’s hyper-political culture.
The ‘Gift of Christmas’ at Prestonwood Baptist Church, as the nearly two-hour extravaganza is called, has become one of the most well-known holiday shows across the US, mostly thanks to social media.
People seem to either love or loathe the ‘Vegas-style’ production at the mega church- complete with a flying Santa Claus and live camels and sheep- with tickets selling from $20 to $71 per person.
What in the world are they doing?
When I was growing up, going to church was always free.
Just about everything that you can think of has become so expensive these days.
And U.S. consumers just continue to become less confident about what is ahead…
A new Gallup poll shows that U.S. consumer confidence deteriorated sharply in November, falling to its weakest level in 17 months as households contended with a protracted federal government shutdown, volatile financial markets, cooling job prospects, and renewed inflation anxiety.
Americans are being squeezed financially from countless directions, and as a result debt levels have been exploding.
Unfortunately, many are now reaching a breaking point. In fact, the number of foreclosure filings has risen 21 percent in just one year…
If you need proof that Americans are struggling financially, here it is.
Foreclosures — when a bank or lender takes back a home after missed mortgage payments — are continuing to skyrocket.
New data from ATTOM shows the number of homeowners falling behind is rising every single month.
In November, 35,651 properties had a foreclosure filing — up a staggering 21 percent from just one year earlier.
Of course there are vast numbers of people that can no longer afford to live in a home at all.
Millions of Americans now permanently live in their vehicles, and that includes a 50-year-old woman in Vermont named Chandra Duba…
Chandra Duba has been living in an RV outside a friend’s house in Jericho for the past few months, after losing her Section 8 subsidized housing in Winooski. Until last week, she didn’t have electricity, but now she’s able to plug into a nearby solar array.
Duba, 50, works as a delivery driver at Domino’s, where her pay with tips is too high for food stamps but too low for rent in the area, she said. The RV was relatively affordable but partially gutted — the stove is gone, and the heating and cooling systems don’t work.
Duba said she is grateful to have a roof over her head but that she doesn’t see the vehicle as a long-term answer to her housing problem.
She is literally living in an RV without any heat, but she still makes too much money to qualify for food stamps.
This is what life is like in 2025 for so many people.
It turns out that business leaders are also very concerned about where things are heading. One recent survey found that only 28 percent of U.S. business executives are “optimistic about the U.S. economy’s outlook over the next 12 months”…
The AICPA and CIMA survey polls chief executive officers, chief financial officers, controllers and other CPAs in U.S. companies who hold executive and senior management accounting roles. The survey is a forward-looking indicator that tracks hiring and business-related expectations for the next 12 months.
Twenty-eight percent of business executives said they were optimistic about the U.S. economy’s outlook over the next 12 months, down from 34% in the past quarter. Domestic economic conditions (No. 1) and inflation (No. 2) were cited as top concerns, swapping places from last quarter.
If only 28 percent are optimistic, that means that 72 percent are either pessimistic or declined to give an answer.
Yes, things really have gotten that bad.
Personally, I am particularly concerned about the plight of our farmers.
As I documented in a previous article, farmers in the United States haven’t faced a crisis of this magnitude in decades.
And even though the Trump administration has just announced a 12 billion dollar aid package, many farmers are still facing financial ruin anyway…
A few years ago, Wisconsin soybean farmer Doug Rebout was getting $14.50 a bushel for his crop. Now, amid a trade dispute with China and rising production costs driven by inflation, that price has plummeted to around $9.30.
Rebout’s farm, which grows about 80,000 bushels of soybeans annually, is looking at a $400,000 economic loss due to the drop in prices, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Prior to President Donald Trump’s announcement of a $12 billion assistance package for farmers, Rebout said that though financial aid would help farmers “weather the storm,” many fear the economic uncertainty will linger. Some are worried about losing farms that have been in their families for generations.
It is time for all of us to be honest with ourselves.
- 2023 was a really bad year for the U.S. economy.
- 2024 was a really bad year for the U.S. economy.
- 2025 was a really bad year for the U.S. economy.
That isn’t a coincidence. That is a trend.
And if you don’t want to think about how difficult things are now, you definitely won’t want to think about where the long-term trends are taking us next.
Inflationary policies lead to inflationary results. For decades, our leaders have been doing highly inflationary things.
Now we are enduring a historic cost of living crisis that has spun out of control, and that should not be a surprise to any of us.
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.
There is a rule of thumb used by those who create safety standards. For every $10 million spent for safety one person dies. $10 million out of the economy and the effects are spread out so you can’t really pinpoint who that person is. But as this headline exclaims the current situation is people are skipping meals and avoiding medical expenses. Both are actions which can lead to sickness and death. And for every $10 million there is enough of that to result in one extra death somewhere.
Part of the affordability issue is government regulations which are often intended to create a more safe world. You can easily find onerous safety regulations that have a significant financial cost, meant to solve some safety issue, and for which an injury is in fact extremely rare to sometimes zero.
For any regulation that regulation better save more than one life for every $10 million in costs or else the regulation is more dangerous than the safety risk it purports to cure.
This article is all made up baloney. Real incomes are up $1200 thanks to Trump. Yeah, grocery prices spiked under Biden but now they’re leveling off and wages and employment are growing faster. Tax cuts coming into effect next year. You cite a pizza delivery woman who can’t afford rent. No kidding. Tell her to get a real job.
One thing you may be missing is the point that prices DOUBLED almost overnight when the biteme regime came to power. Yes, today the inflation rate has slowed, but coming down a few points from 100% inflation doesn’t really mean much.
Secondly, people on fixed incomes (retired) are not seeing the wage increases you mention. A two percent increase in SS does not keep up with inflation.
You’re 100% correct. I’m living it. Merry Christmas.
I don’t know. I still see fat people around.
Correct. I am in both categories. Those of you who are under the impression that the economy is in good condition have no clue. And don’t spew the “you’re just anti Trump” garbage. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in this country is either a TDS sufferer or a Trump sycophant. He has done good things, and he has missed the mark on things, the overall economy being one of them. Not deporting enough illegals is another thing, but that’s a different topic.
Those of us on tight, fixed incomes are in a dire situation. And we don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Simply stating that eggs have come down in price is superfluous.
Frankly quite a few Americans could do with skipping a few meals they’re so fat. Then maybe their health issues would clear up.
I skip breakfast often. Not because of any other reason than I’m in a hurry.
Sometimes I skip dinner if I’ve had a big lunch. It’s no biggy.
The fact that there’s a whole article about this issue like it’s some unheard of tragedy shows you that Americans are way to addicted to their food.
Put the cake down!
Americans would benefit from losing weight. Up to 25% of hospitalized patients suffer adverse effects from treatment.
You whiny, weak, and low information people expect Trump to fix four solid years of Pres. Autopen’s Socialism (and Obama’s messes we live with daily), somehow mitigate Autopen importing 20 million illegal criminal aliens, reducing the cost of the Democrat’s Obamacare (passed with 100% Democrat votes and 0 Republican votes, remember?) in just 8 a few months? It took the Democrats 4 years plus Obama to get where we are today. But gas is the lowest in over 4 years, and that is driving costs down. I’ve seen the costs of many items in the stores go down, while the media says everything has gone up. So I have a hard time believing all the tales of woe. I’m a disabled Marine veteran on a fixed income, so save your tears.
I think this poll is total bullschitt. All economic indicators are improved. Groceries, gas, prescription drugs, mortgage rates, the deficit are all down. I think responders are liars and pollsters set up their typical biases to get the outcome they want. But no thinking person is buying this BS.
This article is progressive bullshit. Read who these people are, what they believe in. They speak nothing of the millions of Biden invited welfare bums who are here for a free meal and free ride.
Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
7 “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?”
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.”
9 “Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.”
10 “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.”
12 “And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.” (KJV)
I eat once a day. It’s called intermittent fasting. It’s good for you, and you may find, like I did, that your food bills decrease. I spend about $200/mo on food. If I stopped buying the Hostess cupcakes and Ho-Hos, I could save about $40/mo.