A Gallup Poll released Wednesday showed that half of Americans say they are worse off now than a year ago. They haven’t seen numbers this high since the great recession of 2008- 2009. If you want to do a deeper dive into the numbers, have at it right here. We think it might be rewarding to take a peek into what we believe might be going on to make people so glum. Things are shitty. And by shitty we mean expensive with no end in sight. We can’t think of a single policy coming out of the current white house that will improve American lives any time soon, if ever. So, there’s that. Inflation is outpacing wage increases. People are living paycheck to paycheck. Running to stand still and the only real-world solution? Run faster.

Who’s getting hit the hardest? Lower income families and the middle class. Joe Biden talks a lot about going after the rich, but it’s always the little guy that get slammed the hardest. Every. Single. Time. From Gallup: Most lower-income Americans, 61%, say their financial situation has deteriorated over the past year, while less than half that number, 26%, indicate it has improved. Middle- and upper-income Americans are also more likely to say they are worse off than better off, but by much narrower margins than seen among the lower-income group.