Serious data for every American.
Economy
As 2023 began, consumer price index (the common measure of inflation) increased by 6.4% compared with in 2022. This rate continues to be over three times higher than our inflation rate has been for most of the last forty years!
●Fuel oil is up 27.7%.
●Natural gas is up 26.7%.
●Electricity is up 11.9%.
●Food is up 11.8%.
●Average hourly earnings are rising more slowly than inflation while real average earnings fell by 1.8% since just last year.
●Real wages have now fallen for twenty-two months in a row.
●77% of Americans now say that inflation is causing them financial hardship.
●Residential real estate lost a cumulative $2.3 trillion in value between June and December in 2022.
Parents
●Currently, one-in-four U.S. parents say there have been times in the past year when they could not afford food their family needed or to pay their rent or mortgage.
●A similar share (24%) say they have struggled to pay for health care their family needed.
● 20% of those who needed child care say they haven’t always had enough money to pay for it,
●Dads made up 17% of all stay-at-home parents in 2016, up from 10% in 1989. Today it is 22%, almost one in four.
Congress
The 118th Congress achieved several demographic milestones when it was sworn in this past January.
●It is the most racially and ethnically diverse Congress to date.
●It has more women lawmakers than any Congress before it.
● It has reached a new high for lawmakers who are gay, lesbian or bisexual.
●Religiously, the 118th Congress remains overwhelmingly Christian, with 469 lawmakers identifying this way, but this is the lowest total since at least 2009.
●Only one member of Congress – independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – identifies as religiously unaffiliated, compared with 29% of U.S. adults who identify that way.
●Women account for 28% of all members of Congress.
Black America
Black population in the U.S. has grown by 30% since 2000, rising from 36.2 million then to 47.2 million in 2021.
With 4 million Black residents, Texas is the state with the largest Black population.
IN GOD WE TRUST
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Clever Journeys 
Jack and Dodie – the inflation for food is much higher than the government figures show. Eggs, while they have dropped down to 2.45 per dozen (down from 4.89 two weeks ago) , are still more than 100% higher in cost than they were about 8 months ago. Last summer they had been as low as .60 (yep) a dozen. Meat is up at least 25 -50% since last summer. half and half cream (gotta have it) is now 100% higher than last summer – and that’s down from being 200% more last month. I don’t need to tell you that folks on very fixed incomes are struggling to eat well and families with kids are really hurting. And we won’t even talk about trying to buy a new car!
Wise folks, if they haven’t already, had better save up and stock up and get ready for a really bumpy ride for the next 2-3 years. Biden and Co. ain’t yet done wrecking things .
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We grow some of our food & yes, stock up. I wished more would.
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I think their little party is going to come to a crashing halt, when they least expect it.
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