Bernie Sanders on cost of living: what the evidence says · JRE #2341
SUBJECT: COST OF LIVING
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
We don't talk about it in the corporate media. 60%, 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
There is no single authoritative measure of 'paycheck to paycheck,' and estimates swing widely with how the term is defined. The Federal Reserve's Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (fielded October 2024) found that 73 percent of adults were doing okay or living comfortably financially, and that about 63 percent said they could cover a $400 emergency expense with cash, figures that do not support a 60 percent hardship rate. A roughly 60 percent number appears only in broad self-reported surveys (such as LendingClub and PYMNTS), which count people who report needing their next paycheck, including some who spend nearly all their income by choice rather than necessity, while spending-based measures like Bank of America's (about 24 percent of households) are far lower. The claim is defensible only under the loosest self-reported definition and is not confirmed by federal data, so it is Mixed.