A Quarter of American Households Are Skipping Meals - A Testament to the Devastating Increase in the Cost of Living

From Affordable Homes to Unreachable Dreams

Do you remember when a decent house didn’t cost more than a lifetime’s worth of debt? I do. I bought my first home for less than fifty grand in the early 1980s. Try finding a broom closet for that today. The median home price in the United States just crossed $500,000, and that’s not in Manhattan — that’s nationwide. Health insurance? Up. Food? Up. Utilities? Way up. Meanwhile, wages stagnate, savings dwindle, and a growing number of Americans are being forced to skip meals just to keep the lights on.

Let’s not sugarcoat it: the American standard of living is collapsing — fast — and no one in power is lifting a damn finger to stop it.

1 in 4 Americans Are Skipping Meals

A new survey just confirmed what anyone with a working pulse already knows: 25% of U.S. households are skipping meals to pay their bills. Let that sink in. That’s one in four American families voluntarily going hungry. Among Hispanic households, the number jumps to 41%. Black households? 29%. And the worst hit age group? Young adults under 35 — the very people who should be starting families, building careers, and fueling future growth — 38% of them are already making starvation-level decisions just to stay afloat.

This isn’t just a stat. It’s a flashing red warning light on a system that’s hemorrhaging integrity.

Ground Beef Is Now a Luxury

Meanwhile, the price of ground beef — once a staple of middle-class life — now qualifies as a luxury item. In the Northeast, it just broke $6.05 per pound. That's a 10% spike in just one year. Eggs, milk, butter — all climbing while your dollar shrinks. Call it what it is: deliberate monetary sabotage by central bankers and bureaucrats who’ve never clipped a coupon in their lives.

America Is Stressed, Broke, and Broken

The Federal Reserve has printed trillions, Washington has borrowed trillions more, and the bill is now being paid — not by Congress, but by you. If you're not worried, you're not paying attention. One in four Americans now spends three hours a day worrying about how they’re going to afford basic necessities. Half of Millennials and Gen Zers spend at least an hour a day in that financial fog. This isn’t “recession fear.” This is the lived experience of a dying economic model.

The 30% Rule Is a Joke

Back in 1975, the average home in Spokane, Washington cost $22,450. Today, that won’t even cover one year’s mortgage payment on a modest house. The so-called “30% Rule” — that you should never spend more than 30% of your income on housing — is now a fantasy. A new report from Realtor.com found that only 3 out of 50 major metro areas still meet that standard. The rest? Forget it. We’ve reached a point where a middle-class salary buys a lower-class lifestyle, if that.

Rising Utility Costs Add Fuel to the Fire

And no, it’s not just housing. Electricity prices jumped 6% in the first six months of 2025 alone. The BLS clocked a rise from $0.179 to $0.190 per kilowatt hour. That might sound minor, but when you’re already on the financial edge, it’s the push over the cliff.

Stressflation Is the New Pandemic

The result? 83% of Americans are suffering from “stressflation.” It’s a new term for an old reality: inflation destroys not just your bank account, but your peace of mind. People can’t sleep, can’t plan, and increasingly can’t eat.

Still think this is all just a blip?

Middle Class Expectations: More Pain Ahead

Think again. A majority of middle-income Americans expect prices to keep rising — and two-thirds of them believe we’re heading straight into a recession within the next year. Most of them are already living paycheck to paycheck — even the ones pulling six figures. The American Dream? It’s not just delayed. It’s dead — murdered by central banks, corrupted institutions, and political cowards too spineless to face the mess they created.

Mass Layoffs Signal Systemic Breakdown

And as if the cost of living weren’t enough, the job market is beginning to implode.

Intel has already slashed nearly 4,000 jobs in the U.S. this year — including 2,392 in Oregon alone. Microsoft just completed its third round of mass layoffs in less than six months, bringing its total job cuts to over 15,000. Even Disney, once a juggernaut of American culture, has conducted four rounds of layoffs in ten months, gutting entire departments and discarding thousands of careers like yesterday’s trash.

This Is Not a Cycle — It’s a Collapse

This is not a cycle. It’s a breakdown.

What you’re seeing now is the tail end of decades of reckless debt expansion, asset bubbles inflated by fake interest rates, and a weaponized monetary system designed to enrich the connected while enslaving everyone else. We are in the final stages of a fiat-fueled endgame, and unless you start insulating yourself from the fallout right now, you’re going to suffer the same fate as every other passive observer in history: expropriation, dependency, and regret.

History is not kind to those who pretend everything is fine.

What You Can Do Right Now

If you want to protect yourself, start with real assets: gold, silver, and cryptocurrency — assets outside the reach of failing banks and desperate governments. More importantly, equip yourself with real knowledge. Download Bill Brocius’ free guide, '7 Steps to Protect Your Account from Bank Failure', and get on the list for his Inner Circle newsletter for just $19.95. You’ll get insights from one of the few minds in finance who saw this collapse coming — and still has a plan for what comes next.

Links for Survival:

• 📘 Download “7 Steps to Protect Your Account from Bank Failure” – Free
• 🔐 Subscribe to Bill’s Inner Circle Newsletter – $19.95
• 📕 Order “End of Banking As You Know It” by Bill Brocius

Get ahead of the collapse — or get crushed by it. The choice is still yours. For now.