Most Americans ‘concerned’ about making ends meet – poll
Some 65% of Americans are “concerned” about being able to afford “day to day things,” according to a YouGov-CBS News poll published on Monday. Almost three-quarters of respondents – 73% – said they were worried about their ability to save money.
Two thirds of poll respondents were concerned about whether they could afford to “take a vacation or travel,” while 70% said they were worried about being able to afford retirement. Of those with children under the age of 18, 60% were anxious about being able to pay for childcare.
These worries were part of a bleak overall outlook on the economy, with 75% of poll respondents rating it “fairly bad” or “very bad.” Asked how “things in America today are going,” 60% responded that it was “worse than [they] expected” at the start of the year, and fully 69% expected the economy to slow down or enter a full-blown recession within the next year.
The majority (59%) also disapproved of the job President Joe Biden was doing, particularly regarding inflation (71% disapproving) and the economy (66% disapproving). Those two issues were similarly rated as the highest-priority problems for the country to address, whereas “investigating January 6th, 2021” was rated dead last, behind the coronavirus outbreak and climate change.
The president has seen his approval ratings crater as inflation has soared to near-all-time highs and gas prices break records on a weekly if not daily basis. A Civiqs poll published on Sunday put his rating at an all-time low of 32%, with consumer sentiment plunging to a record low of 50.0 in the University of Michigan’s last reading for June.
Another poll conducted last week found a whopping 97% of Americans believe rising prices were a “crisis” or at the very least a “problem,” with gas prices singled out as a particularly dire issue, and 91% of respondents said they believe the president has at least some power to get soaring costs under control. While Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently insisted a recession was not inevitable, many economists disagree, and some predict the US will not be the only nation thus impacted. The CEO of Deutsche Bank has warned a global recession is likely before the end of 2023.
