Report: On the Economy, Americans Say They Are Falling Behind

The December 2023 Daily Kos/Civiqs Poll asked 1,116 registered voters in the United States about their personal financial situation, inflation, and what they expect from a healthy U.S. economy.

Americans Falling Behind

Following two years of heightened inflation, nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) say that their income is not keeping up with the cost of living: they feel like they are “always falling behind and may never catch up”. Only 16% of voters describe their income as keeping up with the cost of living. Renters are much more likely to feel like they are falling behind (74%) than those who own their homes (59%).

Incomes are not rising fast enough to keep pace with price increases. Most Americans (56%) say that their household income remained about the same over the past year. Fully 25% report that their household income fell in 2023. Only 18% of Americans indicate that their household income increased. At the same time, 88% of voters say that the price of groceries in their area went up in the past year.

Most Americans do not expect improvement in their personal financial situation in 2024: 51% think that their household income will remain about the same, 24% expect it to go up, and 17% think it will probably go down.

A majority of voters (54%) say that they want to purchase a home, but they do not believe they will be able to afford it within the next few years. Nearly half of Americans (49%) describe their current housing costs as high. Fewer than one in three (32%) find their housing costs reasonable.

Feelings About Inflation

Looking back at recent years’ prices increases, a substantial 70% of voters think that something went seriously wrong with the U.S. economy – they believe prices should not have gone up that much in a well-functioning economy. Just 18% of Americans believe that the amount prices went up could happen even in a well-functioning economy and was not a sign of deeper economic problems.

A huge 82% of Americans describe themselves as “mad” about how much prices have gone up in the past few years. These sentiments are led by 97% of Republicans, but are shared by 84% of Independents and 67% of Democrats. Age also plays a significant role: 87% of voters 18-34 are angry about the price increases, compared to 74% of voters aged 65 and older.

Democrats and Republicans differ markedly in their assessment of why the prices of gas, groceries, and other consumer goods have increased in recent years. Overall, 35% of Americans say that companies were facing higher expenses and had to raise their prices to stay in business, versus 30% who think that companies charged higher prices simply to make more money. Republicans are much more likely to believe that companies were forced to raise prices, 61% to just 5% blaming corporate greed. These numbers are reversed for Democrats: 52% say companies chose to raise prices to make more money, versus 14% who see price increases as a necessary response to the broader economic climate.

Unrealistic Economic Expectations?

What do Americans expect to happen to prices when inflation goes down? Fully 26% of Americans interpret “inflation going down” to mean that “prices go down”. Another 41% say that if inflation goes down, they expect prices to stay the same. Only one in five (21%) recognize that inflation going down means that prices increase more slowly.

Indeed, many Americans (44%) consider a “good” economy to be one in which the prices of gas, groceries, and consumer goods decrease slowly over the long term, contrary to the views of economists. This compares to 26% who agree with the Federal Reserve that a good economy means prices slowly increase over the long term. Republicans (51%) are more likely than Democrats (36%) to expect the prices of goods to decrease over time in a good economy.

A very large share of Americans believe that the inflation problem will not be solved until prices “go back to where they were a few years ago.” Half (50%) think that solving today’s inflation problem requires prices to undergo deflation, including 61% of Republicans, 50% of Independents, and 40% of Democrats. Just 22% of voters do not think that prices need to fall back to previous levels in order for the inflation problem to be solved, and 28% neither agree nor disagree, or are unsure.

Thinking about the future, 43% of Americans are very worried about a major economic crisis within the next couple of years. Another 24% are somewhat worried, 20% are a little worried, and only 10% are not worried at all about a potential economic crisis.

Civiqs surveyed 1,116 registered voters in the United States from December 2-5, 2023. The survey was conducted online, among selected members of the Civiqs research panel. Sampled individuals were emailed by Civiqs and responded using a personalized link to the survey at civiqs.com. The survey results are weighted by age, race, gender, education, party identification, and region to be representative of the population of registered voters in the United States. The general design effect due to weighting is 1.07. The survey has a margin of error of ±3.0% at the 95% confidence level, accounting for the design effect.