The middle class is sinking fast!

Unless one earns $75,000 or more he or she, especially she, is likely to feel lost in an economy that works for the rich but not the middle class. Six years into the purported recovery 56% of Americans feel they are losing ground. Among women the figure is 60% while 52% of men feel financially pinched. In the Pew Research survey the respondents are aware of the rise in the stock market and the job market but those indices matter little unless one owns a hefty portfolio. The point is wages are not keeping up with inflation. Food prices have risen by 22% over the last year and the larger percentage of ones income spent on food the greater the burden. Milk and beef prices are at historic highs along with stock prices and there is evidence that the Federal Reserve's qualitative easing is responsible for both. Democrats have sought to blame this rise on the drought in California but milk and meat prices are regionally driven.
Among those making over $100,000 fifteen percent respond that their income is rising faster than living cost but among those earning less than $30,000 seventy percent are falling behind. The falling standard of living is directly correlated to age with 59% of those over 65 falling behind.
About a quarter of the population experienced some sort of financial problem in the last year.


Notice that 5 years after Obamacare was passed more people had trouble getting or paying for medical care.
It may be unfair to call the dire economic environment deliberate but it is the logical result of Obama's slow growth policies. Rising food prices can be linked not only to Fed policy but to the ethanol mandate that has driven corn prices higher. Corn is the feed stock of almost all U.S. meat and poultry. Health insurance cost have risen because of Obamacare. Utility rates have risen and will rise even more with the EPA's war on coal.
In times past rising prices were often mitigated by the extra interest savers earned on money. In the world of Obama and Yellen that middle class hedge is gone.
When more than half the country feels hopeless things are apt to change dramatically; if not this election then the next. Ronald Reagan did not create "Reagan Democrats"; Jimmy Carter did. Carter's failed policies both foreign and domestic resulted in 14 lost senate seats for the Democrats and ushered in 12 years of Republican dominance.