US sees stark wealth gap widening

Sign of relief

In a sign of relief, the consumer price index from a month ago showed that a range of everyday items including staples like bread, milk and poultry all got cheaper between March and April this year.

But overall, 65 percent of adults said that despite progress on inflation, just trying to cope had made their financial situation worse, the Fed's Economic Well-Being of US Households survey found.

Around 72 percent said that they were doing "okay" financially. In 2021, that number was 78 percent.

Childcare is another area that has been stressful among those on a low income. The percentage of parents with children under the age of 18 who said they were "doing okay" fell from 69 percent in 2022 to 64 percent in 2023, the Fed survey found.

While the wealthier group shares the same problem as those on a low income of finding the right childcare, for the rich, there is no price too high to pay for getting the perfect nanny for their little ones.

Childcare providers for billionaires in New York City can reportedly earn $167 an hour or $2,000 per day, CNBC found. And the nannies not only enjoy flying on private jets but also have the perks of all-expenses-paid trips to international luxury destinations.

In contrast, many low-income workers say that rent is one of their biggest expenses. The median cost of rent nationwide was $1,987 per month as of April, according to Rent.com. In New York, the median cost of rent per month was $3,600 to $8,203, in Los Angeles, it's $2,174 to $3,790.

Los Angeles was recently ranked as one of the most unaffordable places to live, according to the annual Demographic International Housing Affordability Report. It found that cities in California were the most expensive US cities in which to buy a home.

For hundreds of thousands of US citizens, the cost of housing is so unaffordable that they are forced into homelessness.

In 2023, sheltered and unsheltered homelessness was the highest it has ever been since data reporting began in 2007. At least 13 percent more individuals were experiencing homelessness last year than 17 years ago.

It is estimated that on any single night in 2023, 653,100 people in the US were homeless, according to the 2023 US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Annual Homeless Assessment.

Benjamin Henwood, a professor at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at the University of Southern California, told China Daily that "a lack of affordable housing" was a key reason for homelessness in Los Angeles.

The strain on people's finances meant that almost two-thirds of adults felt they were worse off because of the effect of high prices for the past few years, the Fed's survey found.

Less than half of US people polled in a separate study by Bankrate said they are able to raise $1,000 in an emergency.

And just under half of women aged 55 to 66 and 47 percent of men who took part in a poll said that they have no retirement savings, according to US Census Bureau data.

Most homeless families were in some kind of temporary shelter in 2023. But 9 percent of those families with children were in unsheltered locations such as cars, abandoned buildings, or outdoors, HUD's Homeless Assessment Report found.

In a move aimed at helping people living in their cars, safe parking lots have sprung up nationwide in several counties in California, as well as in Duluth, Minnesota, Green Bay, Wisconsin, King County, Washington, Denver and other states.

The initiatives allow people to leave their car in a locked, monitored parking area, so that they can stay in it overnight safely until 7 am the next day.

Jesus Garcia, program coordinator for CAREavan, a safe parking lot in Union City, California, sees all kinds of people living in their cars and believes that it is important to remember that life can take a turn for the worse for anyone.

Garcia told China Daily: "It's everyone from a college student who doesn't have a place to stay and needs a safe place to park, to people who have fallen on hard times, because of disease or something and they've had to choose between staying in a home or taking their meds to the senior couples who just can't afford a place on their retirement income. It just doesn't surprise me anymore."