{"id":16043,"date":"2024-07-23T19:30:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T19:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/social.coldstreams.com\/?p=16043"},"modified":"2025-12-03T11:42:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:42:57","slug":"media-context-free-news-item-of-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2024\/07\/23\/media-context-free-news-item-of-the-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Media: Context free news item of the day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Everything is awful &#8211; this survey is annual or even bi-annual item in the content mill news media about living &#8220;paycheck to paycheck&#8221; &#8211; and is mostly meaningless. The percentage varies by who does the survey and how they define &#8220;paycheck-to-paycheck&#8221; &#8211; and its usually around the same range plus or minus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This set was compiled by me doing Internet searches of news outlets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>2024: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/07\/23\/business\/inflation-cost-of-living-cnn-poll\/index.html?utm_source=business_ribbon\">39% of Americans worry they can\u2019t pay the bills | CNN Business<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2023: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2023\/01\/31\/share-of-americans-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-jumped-in-2022.html\">64% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck (cnbc.com)<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2022: <a href=\"https:\/\/money.com\/difficulty-paying-bills-census\/\">40% of Americans Are Struggling to Pay Their Bills: Census | Money<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lendingtree.com\/personal\/late-bills-study\/\">61% of Americans Who Paid a Bill Late Recently Couldn\u2019t Afford It | LendingTree<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2022: Canada <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/canada\/canadians-unable-pay-bills\">Over half of Canadians $200 or less away from being unable to pay bills | Canada (dailyhive.com)<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2021: 27%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2020: 34% <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/12\/16\/941292021\/paycheck-to-paycheck-nation-how-life-in-america-adds-up\">Paycheck To Paycheck: Why Even Americans Who Earn $100,000 Struggle With Bills : NPR<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2020: 69% <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/number-of-americans-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-on-decline-despite-pandemic-301134207.html\">Number of Americans Living Paycheck to Paycheck on Decline Despite Pandemic (prnewswire.com)<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2018: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2018\/09\/19\/649633468\/31-percent-of-u-s-households-have-trouble-paying-energy-bills\">31 Percent Of U.S. Households Have Trouble Paying Energy Bills : NPR<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2015: 47% <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politifact.com\/factchecks\/2015\/jun\/09\/hunter-schwarz\/47-say-they-lack-ready-cash-pay-surprise-400-bill\/\">PolitiFact | 47% say they lack ready cash to pay a surprise $400 bill<\/a> or 25% <a href=\"https:\/\/nfcc.org\/blog\/americans-not-paying-bills-on-time-and-why-thats-bad\/\">Americans Not Paying Bills on Time \u2014 and Why That\u2019s Bad &#8211; NFCC &#8211; National Foundation for Credit Counseling<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2012: 33% <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/health-shots\/2012\/03\/07\/148171728\/1-in-3-americans-is-having-a-hard-time-paying-medical-bills\">1 In 3 Americans Is Having A Hard Time Paying Medical Bills : Shots &#8211; Health News : NPR<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2010: 37%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2007: 25% <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commonwealthfund.org\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/___media_files_publications_issue_brief_2008_aug_seeing_red__the_growing_burden_of_medical_bills_and_debt_faced_by_u_s__families_doty_seeingred_1164_ib_pdf.pdf\">Seeing Red: The Growing Burden of Medical Bills and Debt Faced by U.S. Families (commonwealthfund.org)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These context free stories are an annual staple in the genre of &#8220;America is awful&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Microsoft Copilot AI Survey of Living Paycheck-to-Paycheck<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>R<strong>oughly 55\u201370% of Americans report living paycheck to paycheck in most surveys since the early 2000s.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udcca Available Survey Results (Selected Years)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Year<\/th><th>Source<\/th><th>% Reporting Living Paycheck to Paycheck<\/th><th>Notes<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>2008<\/td><td>CareerBuilder survey<\/td><td>~61%<\/td><td>First widely cited national survey during financial crisis.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2010<\/td><td>CareerBuilder survey<\/td><td>~77%<\/td><td>Peak stress post\u2011recession.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2013<\/td><td>Bankrate survey<\/td><td>~76%<\/td><td>Majority struggling with savings.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2017<\/td><td>CareerBuilder survey<\/td><td>~78%<\/td><td>High proportion across income levels.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2019<\/td><td>Charles Schwab survey<\/td><td>~59%<\/td><td>Pre\u2011pandemic baseline.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2020<\/td><td>Highland Solutions survey<\/td><td>~63%<\/td><td>Pandemic disruptions.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2021<\/td><td>LendingClub survey<\/td><td>~54%<\/td><td>Pandemic recovery, but still majority.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2022<\/td><td>LendingClub survey<\/td><td>~64%<\/td><td>Inflation surge.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2023<\/td><td>LendingClub survey<\/td><td>~61%<\/td><td>Slight decline.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2024<\/td><td>PNC Financial Wellness Report<\/td><td>~63%<\/td><td>Worker survey.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2025<\/td><td>PNC Financial Wellness Report<\/td><td>~67%<\/td><td>Most recent figure; Bank of America Institute estimates ~25% of households by stricter definition.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2696\ufe0f Why the Range Is Narrow<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Structural reality:<\/strong> A majority of Americans have limited savings buffers, so the proportion rarely falls below 55%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Survey framing:<\/strong> Definitions vary \u2014 some ask if people \u201cstruggle to cover expenses,\u201d others define it as spending >95% of income on necessities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Economic cycles:<\/strong> Peaks occur during recessions (2008\u20132010, pandemic years), but even in growth periods, the figure remains high.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for the annual &#8220;% of Americans who can&#8217;t pay their bills&#8221; media content mill nonsense. It&#8217;s sort of the same every year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[360,29,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-private","category-media","category-media-propaganda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}