A growing majority of American voters now believe that the promise of a stable middle-class life is slipping beyond their reach, even as the political class prepares for another high-stakes midterm election cycle.
According to the Daily Caller, a New York Times poll conducted Jan. 1217 found that 77% of respondents said achieving a middle-class lifestyle is generally harder than it was for the previous generation. Among voters aged 1829 and 3044, that sense of decline was even more pronounced, with 84% in both age brackets saying it is harder to attain a middle-class standard of living than it was a generation ago, while a mere 4% said it had become easier.
The survey painted a picture of a country increasingly anxious about day-to-day survival rather than long-term prosperity. Voters are losing confidence in their ability to get ahead, with 59% saying they worry about affording rent, gas, groceries and bills, and an additional 11% saying they could not afford them at all, while just 29% reported they can cover such routine expenses without worrying about the cost.
Only 14% of respondents said they believe they are getting ahead financially, underscoring how thin the margin is between stability and hardship for most households. That figure suggests that, despite rosy rhetoric about macroeconomic indicators, the lived experience of ordinary Americans is one of stagnation or decline.
Younger Americans reported far more economic stress than those over 65, highlighting a generational divide that undercuts the traditional expectation that each generation will do better than the last. Half of participants under 45 said they are doing financially worse than their parents were at their age, with only 10% saying they were doing well financially, and a striking 75% of voters under 30 said they cannot afford the life they feel they should be able to afford.
Homeownership, long considered a cornerstone of the American Dream, appears increasingly unattainable for younger voters. A majority (54%) of voters under 30 said owning the home they would like to own was out of reach for them, and more than half of all voters said housing and education were so expensive they had become wholly unaffordable.
Retirement security, another pillar of middle-class life, is also under strain for working-age Americans. For voters under 65 looking ahead to retirement, 75% said they could not afford it or they felt insecure about it, according to the poll, suggesting that decades of work may no longer guarantee a dignified old age.
Perceptions of the broader economy were similarly bleak, despite strong stock market performance that often benefits wealthier Americans more than working families. Seventy percent of respondents rated the economy as fair or poor, and only 31% said the economy is better off than it was a year ago, with 29% rating conditions as excellent or good.
When asked who bears responsibility for the cost-of-living crisis, voters were divided, reflecting a polarized political environment and competing narratives about economic stewardship. President Donald Trump received 31% of the voters blame, former President Joe Biden received 35%, and 33% said neither president was responsible for the crisis, yet 51% of respondents said Trumps policies since taking office for the second time had made life less affordable for most Americans.
A separate Napolitan News Service poll released Friday echoed the theme of financial strain, particularly around savings and long-term planning. That survey found that just under half (49%) of registered voters said they can set aside money to save, while 45% said all of their income is used to pay for living expenses, leaving little room for emergencies or investment in the future.
These findings indicate that affordability concerns now cut across traditional economic metrics, overshadowing headline numbers about growth and consumer spending. The recent polling results show how affordability anxieties expands past a strong stock market and consumer spending, and Democrats messaging on the issue helped them sweep gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey on Nov. 4, 2025, a reminder that economic discontent can be weaponized politically.
Trump, facing a public increasingly skeptical about its economic prospects, has moved to highlight policy proposals aimed at easing the squeeze on household budgets. He has turned his focus to various policies to ease the affordability crisis, such as capping credit card interest rates at 10%, and he also backed the Senates massive bipartisan housing package but it was stripped from the National Defense Authorization Act in December due to opposition in the House.
The New York Times poll, which surveyed 1,625 registered voters nationwide from Jan. 12 to 17, 2026, relied overwhelmingly on cell phone contacts, with over 98% of respondents reached via mobile.
The survey carries a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, but even within that range, the data suggest a country where the middle-class ideal is eroding, and where policy debates over inflation, housing, education and retirement will likely dominate the political battlefield for months and years to come.
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