Lori Blumstein was laid off last August from her job working in the mortgage industry. She's gone from living on a salary of roughly $100,000 a year to living on just under $2,000 a month in Social Security payments. "I only know one thing, and that's the mortgage industry and right now it's in the toilet"
The American middle class is feeling the squeeze: inflation, wages that haven’t kept up, higher interest rates and fluctuating markets are all adding up to a loss of collective wealth. Bloomberg’s Shawn Donnan and a team of journalists are following the economic lives of two dozen middle class families across the country as we head into the 2024 election. In this first installment we hear from four of them. What does it mean to be middle class in America today–and how will their shifting fortunes influence the way they vote?
Read more: The US Middle Class's Economic Anxiety Will Decide the 2024 Election
Listen to The Big Take podcast every weekday and subscribe to our daily newsletter: https://bloom.bg/3F3EJAK
Have questions or comments for Wes and the team? Reach us at bigtake@bloomberg.net.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.