{"id":239858,"date":"2025-10-21T01:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/239858\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T01:04:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:04:14","slug":"floridians-are-hurtling-toward-economic-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/239858\/","title":{"rendered":"Floridians are hurtling toward economic disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moneywise, WalletHub, Forbes and Yahoo Finance reported recently that Florida is the second-most distressed state in the union<\/a>\u00a0in terms of its residents\u2019 debt obligations.<\/p>\n

The state saw a 23% increase in the share of people with distressed bank accounts between 2024 and 2025, the data show. In addition, Florida holds the sixth-highest overall share of people with accounts in distress, at 7.3%.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeasuring the share of residents in financial distress is a good way to take the pulse of a state and see whether people are generally thriving or having trouble making ends meet,\u201d said Chip Lupo, a WalletHub analyst.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you combine data about people delaying payments with other metrics like bankruptcy filings and credit score changes, it paints a good picture of the overall economic trends of a state,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In human terms, this financial distress looks like a sharp increase in bankruptcy filings; residents with accounts in forbearance or deferred payments; America\u2019s lowest average credit scores; and higher prices for groceries, rent, mortgages, gasoline and health care.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Americans are struggling to pay their bills, even turning to credit to pay for essentials. A recent\u00a0LendingTree survey<\/a> found that a quarter of buy-now-pay-later users have used these loans to buy groceries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last few years have been a whirlwind for Americans\u2019 finances, with inflation, fluctuating unemployment, public health crises and natural disasters making it hard for people across the country to pay their bills,\u201d the WalletHub website says.<\/p>\n

In the most recent Presidential Election, political pundits say, the electorate voted for Donald Trump because of their anxiety and deep frustration with the price of everything.<\/p>\n

Electoral implications<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Clare Goudreau<\/a>\u00a0of the Johns Hopkins Hub, \u201cRising costs were top of mind as voters cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential election. According to exit polls from CBS News, 75% of voters reported that inflation had caused moderate or severe hardship for them over the past year, with 45% saying they were worse off now than they were four years ago. During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to end inflation and strengthen the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s promise has fallen flat as inflation has spiraled upwards since he assumed office in January. Corporate greed; Trump\u2019s zig-zag, on-again-off-again tariff folly; and economic factors that most folks don\u2019t understand continue to upend ordinary people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A significant swath of Floridians are feeling considerable pain, caught in \u201cworking homelessness,\u201d trying to cope with the affordable housing crisis, stagnant wages, medical debt, and student-loan and credit card debt. Meanwhile, wages and salaries fall far short of supporting families.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0economic data<\/a>\u00a0show that Florida\u2019s economy ostensibly is strong, with a GDP of $1.76 trillion after years of explosive expansion. While the state is expected to continue outperforming the national average in GDP growth, the rate is expected to slow to more typical, sustainable levels in coming years.<\/p>\n

This is not unlike the stock market, which has experienced heady growth for the last several years. The market closed the first half of 2025 at record highs, recovering from an April drop. Some analysts see potential for further gains. Experts see Big Tech, international stocks and AI-related companies as potential areas of continued outperformance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The downturn has already begun<\/p>\n

But the wealth isn\u2019t trickling down.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Florida Realtors report<\/a>\u00a0notes that, as of mid-2025, a family of four in Florida needs an annual income of $217,651 to live \u201ccomfortably,\u201d including savings and discretionary spending. This is significantly higher than the state\u2019s median income.<\/p>\n

As deleterious as these circumstances for Florida families, more danger lies ahead.<\/p>\n

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody\u2019s Analytics, says the U.S. economy is standing on shaky ground and, for many states,\u00a0the downturn has already begun<\/a>. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are showing clear signs of recession, marked by economic weakness and job losses that are likely to continue. Another 13 states are \u201ctreading water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zandi told MarketWatch, \u201cThe economy is still not in recession, but the risks are very high. We\u2019re on the precipice,\u201d as quoted in the report. He warned that the overall U.S. economy is vulnerable and could be pushed into a contraction by even a modest shock.<\/p>\n

Much of this weakness stems from economic policy, Zandi said. He noted that Trump\u2019s tariffs on imported goods have created growing uncertainty, disrupted global supply chains, and forced companies to halt plans to expand. A lack of labor-force growth this year has also contributed to the slowdown, he said.<\/p>\n

Their problems\u00a0are driven<\/a> largely by a mix of slowing immigration, increasing tariffs and federal job cuts, Zandi argues.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis and his MAGA cohort are distracted, however, consolidating political power at the expense of the populace, punishing their enemies and rewarding their friends, and leveraging state and federal funds to bully perceived enemies into compliance. Floridians must organize at the grass roots to fight back.<\/p>\n

As the 2024 Presidential Election showed, in poll after poll, inflation was a major factor in how people voted; now, bubbling anger over the high cost of living can fuel the removal of incumbents.<\/p>\n

Floridians concerned about the high cost of living must force government officials to spend more on health care, affordable housing, education, higher wages, and support of labor unions so that residents can gain higher incomes.<\/p>\n

They have no choice.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Reporting by\u00a0Barrington Salmon.\u00a0Florida Phoenix\u00a0is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor\u00a0Michael Moline\u00a0for questions:\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moneywise, WalletHub, Forbes and Yahoo Finance reported recently that Florida is the second-most distressed state in the union\u00a0in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,132360,132361,3055,101,939,22930],"class_list":{"0":"post-239858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-chip-lupo","10":"tag-clare-goudreau","11":"tag-debt","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-finance","14":"tag-mark-zandi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}