Recently the New York Times reported the following:
Wealthy Americans
Are Spending. People With Less Are Struggling. (1/3)
Data show a
resilient economy. But that largely reflects spending by the rich, while others
pull back amid high prices and a weakening labor market.
By Ben Casselman and Colby Smith
Oct. 19, 2025
By the time the Pilsen Food Pantry
opened on a recent morning, Ulysses Moreno had been there for two hours — with
a line of people behind him that snaked around the corner.
“This is a lifeline for me,” said Mr. Moreno, 39. He had lost his construction job a few days earlier, and with three teenagers at home, he wanted to make sure he could stock up. “Our food budget doesn’t stretch as far as it used to.”
A few miles away, on Chicago’s glitzy Magnificent Mile, luxury hotels are bustling. Jewelry stores and designer boutiques do brisk business. The restaurants are packed with diners sipping $20 cocktails while they wait for tables.
To Evelyn Figueroa, a family physician who founded and runs the Pilsen pantry, the dichotomy is striking.
“For people like me, who are homeowners, who are employed, the economy is great,” she said. “How is the economy? It depends who you’re looking at.”
The divide between rich and poor is hardly new, in Chicago or the rest of the country. But it has become more pronounced in recent months. Wealthier Americans, buoyed by a stock market that keeps setting records, have continued to spend freely. Lower-income households — stung by persistent inflation and navigating a labor market that is losing momentum — are pulling back.
The top 10 percent of U.S. households now account for nearly half of all spending, Moody’s Analytics recently estimated, the highest share since the late 1980s. Consumer sentiment has climbed among high earners but steadily fallen for other groups.
“This isn’t just an inequality story — it’s a macroeconomic story,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy group. “As the wealthy continue to consume, that’s masking more and more insecurity and instability in the economy under the hood.”
Even executives at companies that project mass-market appeal are seeing the trend — and in some cases worrying about its implications.
“Visits across the industry by low-income consumers once again declined by double digits versus the prior year period,” Christopher J. Kempczinski, chief executive of McDonald’s, said on a recent earnings call. “This bifurcated consumer base is why we remain cautious about the overall near-term health of the U.S. consumer.”
(to be continued)
Translation
富裕的美國人正在消費，而貧窮的人卻在苦苦掙扎。 (1/3)
數據顯示經濟依然強勁。但這主要反映的是富人的消費，而其他人則在物價高企和勞動市場疲軟的情況下縮減了開支。
最近一個早晨，Pilsen食品救濟站開門時，Ulysses Moreno已經在那裡等了兩個小時 - 他身後排起了長隊，蜿蜒繞過了街角。
39歲的Moreno先生說:「這對我來說是救命稻草」。幾天前他失去了建築工作，家裡還有三個十幾歲的孩子，他想確保自己能儲備一些食物。 「我們的伙食預算不像以前那麼寬裕了」。
幾英里外，在芝加哥繁華的 “壯麗大道”上，豪華酒店熙熙攘攘，珠寶店和設計師精品店生意興隆。餐廳裡擠滿了人，他們一邊啜飲著20美元一杯的雞尾酒，一邊等位。
對於Pilsen食品店的創始人兼經營者、家庭醫生Evelyn Figueroa來說，這種鮮明的對比令人震驚。
她說: 「對於像我這樣有房有工作的人來說，經濟形勢一片大好」; 「經濟到底怎麼樣？這取決於你看的是誰」。
無論是在芝加哥還是美國其他地區，貧富差距由來已久。但近幾個月來，這種差距變得更加明顯。受股市不斷創紀錄的鼓舞，富裕的美國人繼續大灑金錢。而低收入家庭, 則因受到持續通膨的衝擊，並面臨勞動市場失去動力而不得不縮減開支。
穆迪分析公司最近估計，美國收入最高的10%家庭的消費支出佔總支出的近一半，這是自1980年代末以來的最高比例。高收入者的消費信心上升，但其他族群的消費信心卻持續下降。
進步政策團體「基層合作組織」（Groundwork Collaborative）的執行董事Lindsay Owens說道:「這不僅僅是一個關於不平等的故事，更是一個宏觀經濟的故事」;「隨著富人不斷消費，經濟體系內部日益加劇的不安全感和不穩定性正在被掩蓋」。
這種分化在各行各業都顯而易見。富裕的乘客搶購頭等艙和商務艙的高價機票，而航空公司卻難以填滿飛機後艙的廉價座位。信用卡公司競相推出價格越來越高的信用卡，吸引那些樂於支付年費以換取專屬特權的富豪 - 與此同時，低收入家庭卻在為償還債務的最低還款額而苦苦掙扎。
即使是那些標榜面向大眾市場的公司的管理人員也看到了這一趨勢
- 在某些情況下，他們甚至開始擔憂後果。
麥當勞執行長Christopher J. Kempczinski 在最近的財報電話會議上表示： “與去年同期相比，整個行業低收入消費者的到訪量再次下降了兩位數” ; “這種消費者群體的分化，使得我們對美國消費者近期的整體消費健康狀況保持謹慎。”
（待續）
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