Prices Go Up — Again
As the Federal Reserve tries to figure out whether or not to raise interest rates again, consumer prices shot up 3.7% year over year in August (4.3% not including food and energy), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This was caused by a rise in gas prices that month (up 10.6%, followed by fuel oil (+9.1%), airline fares (+4.9%), car insurance (+2.4), motor vehicle maintenance and repair (+1.1%) and meats, poultry, fish and eggs (+0.8%).
More Baby Boomers Are Homeless
The percentage of homeless people who are 55 and over and sheltered greatly increased from 16.3% in 2018 to 19.8% in 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dennis Culhane, a social policy professor with the University of Pennsylvania said the rate of elderly homelessness is “something that we have not seen since the Great Depression.”
The Poor Get Poorer
The national poverty rate has increased greatly over the past year. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed that last year’s poverty rate was 12.4%, up from 7.8%. Even worse, the poverty rate among children nearly tripled, from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022. The Suffolk County Legislature’s Welfare to Work Commission found it takes $100,000 for a family of four to pay their bills, while the federal poverty threshold for a family of two adults and two children in 2022 was $29,678.
SOURCE: Olivia Winslow, “Report: Poverty soaring,” Newsday, September 13, 2023.
Workers See Smaller Paychecks
Inflation has taken a bite out of everyone’s paychecks. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income, when adjusted for inflation, was $74,580 last year. That is down 2.3% from the previous year’s estimate of $76,330 and a 4.7% decrease from its 2019 peak of $78,250. Since then, it has been three straight years of declines.