Key Takeaways:
Economic anxiety has climbed the income ladder, with even America's wealthiest households now expressing deep pessimism about their finances and their children's prospects, a new Wall Street Journal poll shows.
A Wall Street Journal survey of 2,000 adults conducted May 7-18 found that 86% of Americans who identify as upper class or upper-middle class lack confidence that life for their children will be better than theirs has been — up from 64% in a 2019 survey and matching the pessimism of lower-income groups.
"The American dream is no longer a given, even for those who appear to have achieved it," said John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster who helped conduct the survey. "What we're seeing in this poll is Americans under siege."
The poll reveals a striking disconnect between traditional markers of financial success and the lived experience of those who hold them. Nearly two-thirds of upper and upper-middle class respondents reported household incomes of $150,000 or more, including 25% above $250,000. Yet 43% said they have not saved enough to retire comfortably, and only about 40% said their financial security is where they expected it to be at this stage of life. Nearly three in five said they feel strained by high gasoline prices.
Perhaps most telling: 65% of the most affluent Americans now say the nation's political and economic systems are "stacked against people like me" — more than double the 29% who held that view in a 2017 survey. The finding suggests that the psychological buffer wealth once provided against economic anxiety has eroded significantly.
The Middle-Class Squeeze
Middle-class respondents, defined in the survey by household incomes clustering between $65,000 and $135,000, reported a different but equally troubling picture. Only about one in five described the middle class as a place of comfort, while an equal share called it a place of stress. Roughly half said it was both.
Among middle-class respondents, only one in four said they earn enough to save beyond emergency expenses, have sufficient retirement savings, or have achieved the financial security they expected at this point. About the same share carry credit-card debt they cannot pay off monthly. Faith in higher education as a mobility ladder has collapsed: just one-third said a four-year college degree is worth the cost, with 56% saying it is not.
The data aligns with broader consumer strain. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that the share of credit-card balances delinquent for at least 90 days has hit a 15-year high, even as stock markets climb to records and hiring remains robust.
Pessimism Without Precedent
Across all income classes, about 70% of respondents said the nation is headed in the wrong direction, while only about 25% said it is on the right track. The share expecting their personal finances to improve over the next year held at roughly 30% across all groups — a remarkably uniform pessimism for an economy that has outperformed other industrialized nations.
Adam Geller, a Republican pollster who worked on the survey, said the anxiety among higher-income groups is real even if it differs in intensity from lower-income stress. "They still feel stress," Geller said. "It's not the same level that the working-class or middle-class person will exhibit, but it's very real."
The poll's margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
