Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the US government created a formidable but temporary array of social programs that led to a sharp decline in economic insecurity. Since then, Americans’ economic insecurity has only gotten worse.

Since 2001, Gallup has asked US voters whether they think their financial situation is getting better, staying the same, or getting worse. This year, a record number of Americans answered, “getting worse.”

The 53% who said their financial situation is deteriorating surpasses the 49% who said so during the 2008 financial crisis. Responses have come within 5 percentage points of that mark just five times, and every one of them was in this decade. Crisis-level economic anxiety is the new normal.

The knock-on surveys about economic anxiety is that respondents’ answer

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