A new report from Market Watch has found that nearly 51 million American households are living paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford a monthly budget to cover rent, food, transportation, child care, healthcare and a phone bill. That amounts to 43 percent of all households in the country.
There are two key figures we don’t know about from this projection. First, how many of those households are headed by immigrants or illegal aliens, who are too unskilled to earn a living wage in a modernized country?
Second, how much are the figures skewed by high-cost housing markets such as Los Angeles, New York and the Bay Area in California? For example, rent alone in those markets is higher than the cost of living for a family of four in most other states. The Planning and Transportation Commissioner of Palo Alto, California recently resigned and left the state because she and her husband could not afford the cost of living there — on their $200,000 a year combined salaries!
Without those key data points, it might be easy to think that America is on the verge of an economic collapse. Our question is: Is this the entire country, or is it a blue state phenomenon where high taxes, government corruption and out-of-control housing costs are making it too expensive to live?
Lisa Haven has some food for thought as she breaks down the reports that 51 million households are now living paycheck to paycheck. Watch this video and let us know your thoughts: Are we in an economic crisis?
