62% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck, making it ‘the main financial lifestyle,’ report finds
cnbc.com
Breaking news: in one of the most productive countries / economies in the entire history of humanity, the majority of people creating that productivity do not get to enjoy the rewards of that productivity.
same as it ever was.
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What I have seen is that the issue is now at the local economy level. In the urban areas costs have returned to pre-2020 prices. In rural areas the prices are still extremely high. Gas in a urban area is around $2.30 while in rural areas it's $3.15. Milk prices are about a 0.75 a gallon difference as well. Life sucks if you live in the middle of nowhere, but it's not bad if you live close to a urban area. The price difference appears to be due to transportation costs. It just isn't worth the logistics to support rural communities anymore for most companies.
You keep saying this. Got a source?
Gas near me in my urban area is at $2.90 and milk is $3.15 a gallon. Prices are still way up on most essential goods, but they've stopped climbing. Wages sure as hell haven't kept up either. And rent went up higher last year than ever.
I wish gas was that low. It's still at about $3.65 here and has been for years.
Gas is a little under $5 a gallon in my urban area.
Gas in my commute town in rural Georgia and nearby rural towns is around $2.90-3.20, in Macon it's $2.70-2.80, Savannah it's $2.70-2.80, in Augusta it's $2.80-2.90, and in Atlanta it's $3.20. My area has over 50k people, Macon has 234k people, Savannah 405k, Augusta 611k, and Atlanta 6.1 million. Based off of this limited data I could guess smaller urban areas have lower prices, which rise the larger they get until they eventually meet or surpass rural prices. But then you can look at Colombus with 330k population and their gas prices are $2.50-2.60, but then again it's partially in Alabama which might explain the lower prices (Alabamans are poor af)
Not this urban area.
lol, urban prices have not gone down.
You might want to check again.
I live in Seattle. Prices have not gone down, inflation has simply slowed. You might want to check again yourself.
Isn't that by design in Seattle?
By nature of the income class that moves to Seattle but not exactly by design.
That makes sense.
No, and in fact our city council is regularly working towards better affordability and equitable housing/income/education. I can't say they're especially successful overall, but that's what they get voted in for and that's what they try to do.
I don't know about that. I live in a small city, but it's a depressed community. Gas here has been under $3.00. This weekend, we went to visit my mother in a slightly larger city, but it is a desirable city, and gas was over $3.10.
So it's not really all about urban and rural. There are urban areas people want to live in and there are urban areas that people are less interested in living in and the latter are also cheaper despite being urban.
I just looked at a good example. Gary, IN and Chicago, IL.
According to Gas Buddy, gas in Gary is around $2.75/gallon. Gas in Chicago is around $3.10/gallon. Gary definitely counts as urban.
Meanwhile, nearby but rural Winamac, IN (I picked it at random)- $3.10. Same as Chicago.
Gas prices very wildly from location to location, and probably aren't a good indicator.