富裕的美國人正在消費，而貧窮的人則在苦苦掙扎。 (2/3)

Recently the New York Times reported the following:

Wealthy Americans Are Spending. People With Less Are Struggling. (2/3)

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

(continue)

Reversal of Fortune

Inequality narrowed by many measures during the pandemic, when trillions of dollars in government aid flowed to households and businesses, and many companies provided extra pay to employees who could not work from home. When the economy began to reopen, intense competition for workers led to rapid wage growth, particularly in low-paying sectors where demand for labor far outstripped supply.

But as the labor market has cooled, low-wage workers have lost much of that leverage. Hourly wages are rising most slowly for the lowest-paid workers, reversing the pandemic trend, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Slower wage growth, combined with persistent inflation, is straining many families’ finances. Americans are increasingly relying on credit cards and other forms of borrowing to pay their bills, and more are falling behind on car loans and credit card payments.

Those strains have not resulted in widespread defaults, bankruptcies or foreclosures. But high debt balances mean that even people who are keeping up with payments have little room to borrow more if their costs rise or their incomes fall. And data on spending from Numerator, a consumer research firm, shows that lower-income households have cut back on discretionary purchases, leaving them little buffer.

“People are still consuming the basics, but they’re cutting back on all this extra stuff they were able to do coming out of the pandemic,” said Leo Feler, chief economist at Numerator. “It’s just more precarious because if we’ve already trimmed all the fat, the only thing left to trim are the essentials.”

Pressure on lower-income families was building long before President Trump returned to office. But some of the administration’s policies have worsened the challenges, particularly in certain communities.

Farmers have been hard hit by Mr. Trump’s trade war with China. Cuts to the federal work force have taken a toll in Northern Virginia and other parts of the country that depend heavily on government employment — effects aggravated by the government shutdown. And immigration raids are weighing on industries that rely on foreign-born workers and on the businesses that count them as customers.

In Pilsen, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, the normally bustling streets have been quiet in recent weeks amid increased immigration enforcement. Lawn signs in Spanish remind residents of their legal rights. Local businesses say they are seeing fewer customers. Dr. Figueroa said her food pantry was getting more requests to have groceries delivered because families were afraid to venture out.

“There’s a lot of need,” she said. “I’m always trying to think, What’s the next emergency?”

Sources of Fragility

The hardship in Pilsen and other communities has been largely hidden in the macroeconomic data, however. Consumer spending continues to outpace inflation. Household debt levels have risen but are manageable relative to Americans’ incomes. Broad measures like gross domestic product point to an economy that has slowed but remains fundamentally healthy, surprising many forecasters.

But that resilience increasingly rests on a relative handful of well-off households. Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston recently found that growth in consumer spending since 2022 “has been propelled by the highest-income consumers.”

“By contrast,” the researchers noted, “spending growth for low-income consumers has been much weaker.”

(to be continued)

Translation

富裕的美國人正在消費，而收入較低的人則在苦苦掙扎。 (2/3)

數據顯示經濟表現強勁。但這主要反映了富人的支出，而其他人則在高物價和勞動市場疲軟的背景下縮減支出。

(繼續)

命運逆轉

疫情期間，數兆美元的政府援助流入家庭和企業，許多公司為無法在家工作的員工提供額外工資，從多個方面來看，不平等現象縮小。經濟重啟後，激烈的勞動力競爭導致薪資快速成長，尤其是在勞動力需求遠超過供應的低薪產業。

但隨著勞動市場降溫，低薪工人失去了大部分優勢。根據亞特蘭大聯邦儲備銀行的數據，最低薪資工人的時薪成長最慢，扭轉了疫情帶來的趨勢。

薪資成長放緩，加上持續的通貨膨脹，正在給許多家庭的財務狀況帶來壓力。美國人越來越依賴信用卡和其他形式的借貸來支付帳單，越來越多的人拖欠汽車貸款和信用卡還款。

這些壓力並未導致普遍的違約、破產或喪失抵押品贖回權。但高額債務餘額意味著，即使那些能夠按時還款的人，一旦價格上升或收入下降，幾乎沒有空間再借更多錢。消費者研究公司 Numerator 的支出數據顯示，低收入家庭已經削減了可自由支配的購買，留下很小的緩衝空間。

Numerator 首席經濟學家 Leo Feler 表示: 「人們仍在消費基本生活必需品，但他們正在削減疫情後能夠購買的所有額外物品」; 「情況變得更加不穩定，因為如果我們已經削減了所有不必要的開支，那麼唯一剩下可削減的就是必需品」。

早在特朗普總統重返總統職位之前，低收入家庭面臨的壓力就已日漸增大。但政府的一些政策加劇了這些挑戰，尤其是在某些社區。

特朗普與中國的貿易戰給農民帶來了沉重打擊。聯邦政府裁員對北維吉尼亞州和其他嚴重依賴政府就業的地區造成了沉重打擊 - 政府關門更是加劇了這種影響。突擊移民也給依賴外國出生工人的行業以及將他們視為客戶的企業帶來了壓力。

在芝加哥西區以西班牙裔為主的Pilsen社區，由於移民執法力度加大，過去熙熙攘攘的街道在最近幾週變得冷清起來。草坪上掛著西班牙文的標牌，提醒居民他們的合法權利。當地商家表示，顧客越來越少。Figueroa医生說，她的食品儲藏室接到的食品雜貨配送請求越來越多，因為家庭成員不敢出門。

她說:「需求很大」;「我總是在想，下一個緊急情況是什麼？」

脆弱性的根源

然而，Pilsen和其他社區的困境在很大程度上被宏觀經濟數據所掩蓋。消費支出持續超過通膨。家庭債務水準上升，但相對於美國人的收入而言尚在可控範圍內。國內生產毛額等整體指標顯示，經濟成長放緩，但基本面依然健康，令許多預測者感到意外。

但這種韌性越來越依賴少數富裕家庭。波士頓聯邦儲備銀行的經濟學家最近發現，自2022年以來，消費支出的成長「主要由高收入消費者推動」。

研究人員指出，“相比之下，低收入消費者的支出增長則要疲軟得多。”

（待續）