Middle Class Is Buckling After Five Years of Inflation

[applegrove]

Middle Class Is Buckling After Five Years of Inflation

November 21, 2025 at 7:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard 17 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2025/11/21/middle-class-is-buckling-after-five-years-of-inflation/

Wall Street Journal: “After nearly five years of high prices, many middle-class earners thought life would be more affordable by now. Costs for goods and services are 25% above where they were in 2020. Even though the inflation rate is below its recent 2022 high, certain essentials like coffee, ground beef and car repairs are up markedly this year.”

[Henry203]

1. Trickle down economics

At its finest.

[EdmondDantes_]

13. This. It might have gotten more noticeable, but this isn't a 5 year problem

It's a 50 year problem. Chronic undertaxing the wealthy, wage stagnation, etc.

[Henry203]

21. Two different economic models

1932- 1980- Keysnian econonmics-strong middle class, almost no homeless problem and a handful on food stamps

1980- 2025 Conservtaive economic model- vast homeless problem and one out of eight people on food stamps.

[EdmondDantes_]

23. Plus that prosperity period also saw the civil rights movement

And the sexual revolution. Granted we did benefit greatly from Europe being destroyed in the war, but we had a much tighter social fabric.

[maxsolomon]

26. Shorthand for "since the Pandemic"

Which was 5 years ago.

[sop]

2. Things have never been so good for the top 1%.

[Blues Heron]

3. Ground beef is an essential? Eww

[haele]

16. For some people, yes.

For others, no. Metabolisms are different, as is regional access to healthy food sources.
Every time I hear someone say "I can get all my daily protein from a pound of dried beans", I think of sailor I served with who was break out in hives allergic to most peas and beans, including Soy beans and lentils. He had to watch salads, green peas or chickpeas would make him throw up.
His protein of necessity was canned light tuna in water, chicken, or beef.
Some people don't like beans because it makes them gassy. Some people can be allergic to eggs, or lactose intolerant - other sources of protein.
So, yeah...depending on metabolisms and where one lives, ground beef as a meat source may be a necessity.
Not to a lot of people, but to enough I'm not going to dismiss it as a "choice" or bad habit.

All this being said, the headline is a bit misleading. The amount of inflation we experienced 3 to 5 year ago was more Covid and then Greedflation as the food corporations made up for profits lost on the backs of consumers - exaggerating "Supply Chain" disruption as an excuse to gouge even more.
Costs were coming down in 2024, still higher than 2019, but wholesale costs were within a more average level of inflation over that time period when looking at normal pressures on the market
Inflation. Corporate Greed was still affecting supermarket pricing.

[EdmondDantes_]

24. It's traditionally been a cheaper meat among beef.

I only rarely eat meat but got a yearning for a dish that uses ground beef and after not buying any for years, the cost was a surprise.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Nothing ever comes back down. Inflation creates a new normal every year.

BTW, bananas are 20% higher than in January. And have not come back down since he announced tariffs on bananas would be reduced. Retailers baked the new prices into their new normal as regular prices.

[applegrove]

5. Yup. Used to be that Canadians would put up with higher base prices than Americans.

But I think America has caught up. At least you are not being passive about it. It is waking up MAGA. Getting them to step out of the cult for a bit.

[allegorical oracle]

8. Stores I shop now sell bananas individually -- like candy bars. nt

[bucolic_frolic]

10. I don't go there very often but Kroger-owned Turkey Hill Convenience Store locally

sold bananas for $1 each last time I looked several years ago

[Fiendish Thingy]

17. DEflation is worse than inflation

Promising lower prices (other than for gasoline), as Trump has done, is simply a cruel lie.

The reality is, now that inflation has become entrenched, efforts must be focused on quelling the inflationary forces in the economy - tariffs, price gouging, antitrust monopolies,etc. while simultaneously raising wages to improve consumer purchasing power.

Raising the minimum wage would be an excellent first step.

I don’t expect that to happen until 2029 at the earliest.

[misanthrope]

29. That's the lesson these MAGA idiots can't fathom

It takes something truly ruinous and terrible to create deflation.

[Prairie Gates]

6. Inflation (hitting staples) + Wage Stagnation + Increasing Health Care Costs

It's bad.

And costs are going to increase specifically for the middle class, especially when it comes to education costs. The dirty secret is that international students have subsidized US students at US universities significantly for the last 30 years. Trump killed that in his war on the universities. International enrollment has cratered. The costs of that are massive, and will be passed on the US students in addition to the collapse of many univerisities, leading to smaller supply and even higher costs.

[NoMoreRepugs]

7. Exactly. These are costs to all of society not just the middle class.

The deterioration of the American education system is appalling thanks to Trumpism.

[misanthrope]

30. Trump and his fellow travelers don't care

As long as they believe they simply have the military train their weapons on the U.S. citizens, they have no incentive to suddenly adhere to an ethical code they obviously lack.

[Johnny2X2X]

9. Wages

Even during the worst of inflation, wage growth was robust, so when prices were rising 0.7% in a month, wages were increased 0.6%, not ideal, but people almost kept up even during the worst of it.

And once Biden got inflation under control, we had an extended period of years where wage growth exceeded inflation, those were real gains for working people. Those gains carried over into this year, but this last bit of data has reverse it. Inflation is once again higher than wage growth month over month with wages only increases 0.2% in September. Trump has taken the Biden economy, which saw real wage growth for all Americans and reversed that, and it only took him about 8 months.

[MichMan]

15. Extended periods of years?

"And once Biden got inflation under control, we had an extended period of years where wage growth exceeded inflation,"

The data states otherwise.

Maybe a little over a year. Inflation didn't go down to 3% until September 2023. Since then, the trend line has been pretty flat with the average (so far) for 2025 at 2.7 % compared to 2.9% in 2024. Prior to 2021, it had been 20 years since it was above 4% annually. Data attached below

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/historical-inflation-rates/

As far as wages go, wage growth didn't outpace inflation until June 2023. From April 2021 through May 2023, it was far outpaced by inflation. Chart attached below. (Look at the 2nd chart on the link.)

Wage growth isn't like COLA where everyone gets the same amount of increase. Some people did very well, while for others, wage growth was fairly minimal. Everyone is affected by inflation.

https://usafacts.org/answers/are-wages-keeping-up-with-inflation/country/united-states/

[W_HAMILTON]

22. We all had it better under Biden than Trump.

Those that let this fascist back into office thought "change = better" without realizing that, no, change can most definitely result in something even worse, as has been the case with Trump.

[allegorical oracle]

11. Any wage increases prompt prices to rise. That's why wages will never keep up with

inflation. In the 1960s a decent wage was $12,000. A brand new Chevy with all the options cost $4,500 and could be comfortably paid off in two years. A respectable, newly built home in a nice neighborhood cost $15,000.

[Fiendish Thingy]

19. That is not an absolute truth

It is a myth spread by conservatives to keep people complacent in low wage jobs.

Wage increases do create inflationary pressure with increased consumer demand- that’s why the fed raises interest rates, to tamp down some of the demand. It’s a delicate balancing act, but when done effectively, limits runaway inflation and maintains purchasing power for longer.

Deflation is worse than inflation- prices on most goods almost never go down (fuel is the major exception). Wage increases are the only way to keep the middle class from drowning. Billionaires who don’t want to see their massive profits decline must be reigned in by congress and the SEC.

[allegorical oracle]

20. I'm no conservative...and take umbrage. Of course wage increases are crucial to the middle

class. Just saying that what we average people see is the result of the action of others beyond our influence.
That leaves us to deal with it as best we can. And if we fall below so'-called middle-class we may drown.

Show us your plan to rein in billionaires -- at least and until a Dem gets back in power.

[Fiendish Thingy]

25. Until Dems are in power and the court is expanded, there can only be attempts to stop the bleeding

So until the midterms, it is the courts, the states and the people who are the first lines of defense.

Once Dems have the trifecta, then offensive strategies can be implemented.

[Blue Full Moon]

12. The CEO of Krogers

Said in an interview that Krogers gives money to the republican party because they cause inflation. Inflation is maximum profits.

[newdeal2]

14. You pay more for less

That’s at least as infuriating to me. The quality and size of products has gone down dramatically even as the prices go up. We are getting screwed both ways.

[Raftergirl]

18. My husband took me out to lunch yesterday for my birthday at a very nice restaurant. It was filled with people.

I had a salmon burger (it was delicious) with no sides and a water. I wasn’t that hungry. He had a chicken sandwich, truffle fries and a ginger ale. It was $75 with tip. We have a lot of disposable income so we can afford to spend that, but still.

Then we went to my favorite boutique so I could pick something out. It has always been expensive. For instance, a basic long sleeve t-shirt would be about $150. There wasn’t one for under $300. Sweaters were all over $500 (which was what I was looking for.) Even I won’t spend that for a sweater! And not to mention they are all wide now (I’m petite so that style does not work for meat all) or crop top length. I also usually shop their sales rack at the end of seasons, so I will go back in a few months to see what the sales prices will be - if there is anything that I would buy.

I ended up buying a pair of jeans that were $258. I have spent $200 for jeans before, so I didn’t mind as much. And they were ones not with tears in them, which so many have today.

I was at Marshall’s about a month ago and got two lovely long sleeve fitted tee’s which were $19 for the two, a long sleeved turtleneck top, which was $19 and a pair of black jeans that were $29. It does take a long time to go through the racks to find something decent, but for the price it is worth it, imo.

Still in search of sweaters that aren’t wide. Might see what TJX has.

[Trueblue Texan]

27. Most of the clothing stores have closed in my area.

You can go to TJMaxx, Marshall's Ross, Kohl's, Dillard's, and Good Will. That's it. I find as many things at Good Will as I do at any of the others--and it's more fun to shop there...you never know what kind of funky fashions you might find.

[Raftergirl]

31. We have plenty of stores, but I admit I'm very picky. I'm not a fan of fast fashion and would rather buy

a few quality pieces than a lot of not great stuff.

We have a new consignment shop in town and I need to check it out. They can be fun places to shop.

[misanthrope]

28. That's the plan

Take everything from the middle class and reduce all but the very top to serfdom.