With unemployment low and wages rising, the struggle for basic necessities like food should be easing. But those on the front lines of feeding the hungry say they are seeing the opposite.
As of 2022, 33.9% of US HOUSEHOLDS made less than $50k/year. The median rent for the same year was $1874/month. That is $22,488/year. That is 44.976% of 50,000. 50,000 was the highest end of the range from 0 to 50,000. That means that ~⅓+ of the country have a very high probability of paying more than 45% of their annual wage in rent alone. Taking the low average from here, that is another $562/month out the window for utilities, or $6,744/year. So shelter and basic utilities for survival has us up to $29,232. For reference, that is 38% of the annual income for $75,000/year, the next line up in that chart. That is another 16%+ of households, which means that more than 50% of the US population is spending 38%+ of their annual income on housing and basic utilities, not even food. And just in case you are curious, that initial <=50k group is paying 58% of their income just to have heat, electricity, and housing to use them in. And to make sure that these numbers were not being biased by rents among income distributions, I was able to find raw data to check my estimates. They were actually low. Of the 45,221,844 households renting as of 2022, 10,492,596 of them make less than $50,000/year AND pay more than 40% of their annual income in rent. That is 47.2% of people making less than 50k/year and accounts for over 23% of all renters in the country.
So, in long, yes, everyone is poor. And to think otherwise is to either buy in to blatant propaganda, functionally not understand statistics but still think you know better than those who do, or be disingenuous representing reality in a bid to mislead the public. Only you can answer which one that is.
As of 2022, 33.9% of US HOUSEHOLDS made less than $50k/year. The median rent for the same year was $1874/month. That is $22,488/year. That is 44.976% of 50,000. 50,000 was the highest end of the range from 0 to 50,000. That means that ~⅓+ of the country have a very high probability of paying more than 45% of their annual wage in rent alone. Taking the low average from here, that is another $562/month out the window for utilities, or $6,744/year. So shelter and basic utilities for survival has us up to $29,232. For reference, that is 38% of the annual income for $75,000/year, the next line up in that chart. That is another 16%+ of households, which means that more than 50% of the US population is spending 38%+ of their annual income on housing and basic utilities, not even food. And just in case you are curious, that initial <=50k group is paying 58% of their income just to have heat, electricity, and housing to use them in. And to make sure that these numbers were not being biased by rents among income distributions, I was able to find raw data to check my estimates. They were actually low. Of the 45,221,844 households renting as of 2022, 10,492,596 of them make less than $50,000/year AND pay more than 40% of their annual income in rent. That is 47.2% of people making less than 50k/year and accounts for over 23% of all renters in the country.
So, in long, yes, everyone is poor. And to think otherwise is to either buy in to blatant propaganda, functionally not understand statistics but still think you know better than those who do, or be disingenuous representing reality in a bid to mislead the public. Only you can answer which one that is.
I party because the rent is too damn high! No, wait…… 🤔