Young workers are being ravaged by the continuing scourge of inflation marking today’s capitalist economic and social crisis. The average credit card debt for 22- to 24-year-olds has ballooned to a record high of $2,834 per youth at the end of 2023 — 26% higher than what it was 10 years ago.
The highest price rises are for essential needs — housing and food. Many youth in their 20s — and beyond — are forced to live with their parents, relatives or friends, shelving any plans to start raising a family. Meanwhile, the big bankers are making superprofits charging huge annual interest rates of 20% or higher on unpaid credit card balances. Total credit card debt topped $1 trillion last year.
Rents have soared 22% over the past four years. Keeping a roof over your head accounts for at least one-third of an average worker’s monthly paycheck, and in many cities — like New York — it’s much higher. Like grocery prices, rents are not coming down.
Since 2019 rent has gone up on average 1.5 times faster than workers’ wages in 44 out of the country’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Nowhere is this more so than in New York City, where wages rose a meager 1.2% between 2022 and 2023, while rents went up 8.6%, and even higher if you live by a subway stop. The city’s average median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $4,400.
Rising rents are “delaying my retirement,” Teresa Diaz, a 67-year-old medical research assistant who rents a studio apartment in Detroit, told the Wall Street Journal. Her rent just jumped 12%. She’s lucky. Her landlord had demanded a 30% increase!
Rents are now “stuck at a price most Americans can’t afford,” MarketWatch admitted.
High mortgage rates, currently around 7%, rule out getting your own home for many young workers. The average household would need to shell out more than 40% of its income to cover monthly payments on a median-priced home, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta figures.
“People are seeing prices jumping all around them, but then they turn on the TV and see the stock market at all-time highs,” Chris Landeck, a retired petroleum engineer in Brenham, Texas, told the Journal. This is a stark reminder of class differentiations under capitalism.
Another method used by bosses to boost profits is adding surprise fees to many everyday purchases. More companies now tack on a 3% surcharge just for swiping your credit card. Extra fees are also being added for food delivery costs, bank overdrafts, purchasing event tickets and more.
Need surgery? You have to pay first
Another reminder of how the capitalist profit system works is new rules being adopted by many hospitals. They are now refusing to perform surgeries unless you pay in full for it first. This is true for a growing number of “non-life-threatening” conditions, like knee replacements, CT scans and delivering a baby.
Heather Miconi was required to pay $2,000 to a surgery center in Merritt Island, Florida, so her daughter could get adenoid and tonsil surgery to correct problems she was having breathing. Miconi, whose insurance won’t cover the cost, works three jobs — processing medical records, delivering food on weekends and catering meals — to make ends meet.
“I can’t even provide for my daughter to get surgery for her to be able to breathe,” she told the Journal. Half of adults say they couldn’t afford to spend more than $500 on medical care if they got sick or injured.
Walmart announced April 30 that it is closing all 51 of the health care centers they began opening in 2019. A company spokesman said they’ve become “unsustainable” because of a “lack of profitability.”
Other profit-driven bosses who had hoped to cash in on the health care industry are doing likewise. Walgreens is planning to close 160 of its primary care clinics. And Amazon announced in February it would slash a few hundred jobs from its health care units.
If you live in one of the growing number of assisted-living or other senior citizen housing facilities, paying thousands a month for their services, and you fall down for any reason, management instructs staff not to pick you up. Instead, they’re supposed to call the fire department for “lift assistance,” including when you’re feeling fine, if a little embarrassed.
“Lift-assist 911 calls from assisted living and other senior homes have spiked by 30 percent nationwide in recent years to nearly 42,000 calls a year,” reported the Washington Post. “That’s nearly three times faster than the increase in overall 911 call volume during the same 2019-2022 period.”
A growing number of cities are now charging the facilities for “lift assist” fire department trips, but the bosses there just pass the extra costs onto the residents.