Six Figures Is Survival: America’s Wealth Illusion Is Crumbling

The Mirage of Middle-Class Prosperity The American middle class, once the heartbeat of the world’s most powerful economy, has been gutted and sold for parts. For decades, we were sold a lie: Get a degree, land a job, make six figures, and you’ll make it. But in 2025, six figures isn’t the finish line. It’s the starting point for financial survival. According to a new Harris poll: 64% of six-figure earners say they’re not thriving — they’re surviving. Half believe the American Dream is now out of reach. The top 10% are deferring health care, skipping vacations, and financing groceries. Three-quarters of them are using credit cards not for perks — but because they're broke between paychecks. These aren’t the poor. These are the “successful.” And if they’re sinking, the rest are already underwater. The Real Inflation: Silent Theft from the Bottom Up Inflation is more than just a buzzword — it’s a covert war on your purchasing power. And make no mistake, it’s a war the average American is losing. The U.S. dollar has been systematically devalued by a lethal combination of political cowardice, Federal Reserve manipulation, and runaway federal spending. Let’s run the numbers: 87% of Americans report seeing higher-than-usual grocery prices. Items are now 3–4x more expensive than they were just a few years ago. The November NFIB report recorded the largest spike ever in small businesses raising prices. This isn’t a fluke. It’s an engineered disaster. Congress and the Federal Reserve have colluded in a financial charade that’s now backfiring — flooding the market with cash while gutting your wages in real terms. They printed your future into oblivion. Credit Cards and “Buy Now, Pay Later”: The New Ration Books The American household is no longer run on cash — it's run on debt and illusion. Credit cards have become life support, and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is the new welfare for the upper-middle class. What was once a crutch for the poor is now standard practice for those making $200,000 and up. This is not wealth. It’s camouflage. They’re financing their lives on borrowed time and borrowed money, just to maintain the illusion of success. Let’s be clear: if your survival depends on credit, you don’t own your life. Your bank does. Mass Layoffs and Soft Landings for the Rich While the political class blabbers about “soft landings,” real Americans are getting hard landings — into unemployment lines. In 2025: Nearly 1.2 million job cuts have been announced — up 54% over last year. Retail layoffs are up 140% year-over-year. Tech, manufacturing, and tourism — once economic anchors — are hemorrhaging jobs. And yet the elite continue to profit. Stock buybacks roll on. Executive bonuses are untouched. The pain is never “shared.” It’s offloaded — onto workers, homeowners, savers, retirees. The “New” Middle Class: You’ll Own Nothing and Still Be Broke The definition of financial security has shifted dramatically. It used to mean owning a home, saving for retirement, and taking an annual vacation. Now? It means not getting evicted. Six-figure earners now say they’d need twice their current income to feel safe. That’s a massive shift — and one that reveals how deeply unstable the U.S. economy has become. What used to be upper-middle class is now entry-level survival. The line between the working poor and the professional class is disappearing, and fast. Weimar in Slow Motion Is America headed for Weimar-style hyperinflation? Not yet — but the groundwork is familiar: Endless money printing to fund unsustainable deficits. A central bank pretending inflation is “transitory.” A political class too cowardly to make real structural cuts. It’s not just inflation. It’s institutionalized looting disguised as policy. They’ve debased the currency, sold out the future, and handed the bill to the same people they taxed into silence. The Political Class Kicked the Can — Right Into Your Front Door Washington’s fiscal strategy is simple: Spend, borrow, lie, repeat. When the hangover hits, blame the “greedy corporations,” the “global instability,” or better yet — Russia. But here's the truth: The Fed has added trillions to its balance sheet out of thin air. Congress has run deficits that make 2008 look like a budget surplus. Real wages are flat while prices skyrocket. This is theft. Not incompetence — intentional neglect and self-enrichment by a political-financial elite that’s insulated from the fallout. Collapse Isn’t Coming — It’s Here You don’t need to be an economist to see what’s happening. Look at your grocery bill. Your gas tank. Your rent. Look at your bank balance on the 20th of the month. The old American economy is already dead. What we have now is a managed demolition — masked by manipulated stats and media gaslighting. They’ll tell you inflation’s at 3%. You’ll check your receipts and see it’s 30%. Conclusion: Time to Wake Up If six-figure earners are barely treading water, what happens to the rest? If the dollar buys less each month, what’s left to save? If debt is the only bridge to your next paycheck, who really owns your future? This isn’t just an economic downturn. It’s the death rattle of a system that ate itself from the inside out. You can’t print prosperity. You can’t legislate abundance. But you can — and they did — destroy a middle class that once made America exceptional.

Six Figures Is Survival: America’s Wealth Illusion Is Crumbling

Bill Brocius Dec 15

Article Summary

Join the Inner Circle to get full access to these articles

Bill Brocius | Dec 9

The Red Dragon Rises: Why America Is Losing the Economic War with China

Bill Brocius | Dec 8

The Digital Dragnet: 11 Signs the Global Control Grid Is Already Here

Bill Brocius | Dec 5

THE GREAT AMERICAN JOBS PURGE: LAYOFFS TOP 1.17 MILLION AS CORPORATE AMERICA TURNS ON ITS OWN

7 steps - Lead Gen (popover & inserted into pages)