USA Today

No, not the news outlet, some commentary on the living standards decline.

"Today, approximately 40 percent of the entire country is considered to be either living in poverty or among the ranks of “the working poor”, and 42 million Americans are on food stamps.We now have an absolutely gigantic “underclass” that is largely made up of people that were once solidly middle class.The rapidly rising cost of living is just shredding families from coast to coast.
In Montana, one senior is incredibly frustrated because his property taxes have increased by 790 percent over the past several years…A senior from Montana has delivered a viral speech about the sorry state of property taxes in the Treasure State.“I’m on Social Security, I’m 68-years-old and working just to pay my taxes,” says Kurt, in a clip shared on TikTok by Ryan Busse, who is running to be the next governor of Montana.Kurt claims that over the last couple of years, his annual property taxes have soared from $895 to almost $8,000 — an increase of around 790% — which he says is like paying almost “$700 a month rent to the state to live in our own house.” The state has an Elderly Homeowner/Renter Tax Credit, and the maximum credit is $1,150. His property taxes have skyrocketed because property values have skyrocketed. And property values have skyrocketed because our leaders flooded the system with way too much money.
Small businesses are being monkey-hammered by inflation as well. In fact, one recent survey found that 86 percent of all U.S. small businesses say that they are being hurt by inflation…An overwhelming majority of small business owners say they are being hurt by rising prices.The new survey released Wednesday by small business network Alignable shows 86% reporting being hurt by high costs with only 6% saying they are thriving and not struggling.
Alignable surveyed more than 3,000 business owners from mid-April to mid-May and found that they overwhelmingly lament the burden of inflation."

Not surprising at all. You can't create so much money out of nowhere, backed only by digital numbers and having no relation to the real economy, without an eventual crisis.

https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/america-in-2024-fast-food-is-a-luxury-11-million-children-live-in-poverty-and-1000s-of-stores-are-closing/