The American Family Runs out of Money

According to a new Gallup poll on the financial needs of the American family:

The federal poverty threshold for a family of four is just under $24,000; however, Americans believe such a family unit living in their community needs more than double that — $58,000 — just to “get by.”

And $58,000 is the mean; the average, according to Gallup, is $50,000. So “getting by” has become nearly impossible for a huge number of Americans.

Getting by will become harder in the years ahead. Unemployment at current levels often allows companies to pick skilled workers without paying them for their skills as often as in 2006 and earlier. Employers also can leverage their advantage to force more people to labor without benefits or savings plans. Many corporations have learned since the the recession that they can operate lean indefinitely. Due to these factors, full-time, full-benefit jobs should be harder to come by as part of the recovery of the national economy, at least for the next several years.

The American family does have one slight advantage. Inflation is remarkable low and the cost of one critical product — gasoline — has fallen recently. However, gas prices remain historically high, relatively, at more than $3.50 per gallon of regular nationwide. And a lack of inflation only means that if real household income holds steady, these people can barely hold their own. Should real wages continue to drop, the problem that began during the recession will continue.

Finally, for many Americans, one of the biggest effects of the housing crisis has not gone away. Housing prices may have recovered very modestly, but in most areas are still well below their 2006 peaks. The equity Americans hoped to take out of their homes has evaporated. And there are still 14 million underwater mortgages in the United States. So, the struggle to make ends meet for homeowners is hardly over.

While $60,000 seems like a lot of money, and by most measures it is, that is not enough for many American families to live on. And many American families have annual incomes that are nowhere near it.