Half of Americans now say they skip meals because food costs too much, and coffee, the one thing keeping the other half upright, is up 108 percent since 2020. This is the economy a week before the midterms: a country that is literally rationing dinner while the people in charge insist everything is great.
Skipping Dinner Is Now a Mainstream Lifestyle
Here's the headline number, and read it slowly. Half of Americans reported skipping meals because of rising food prices, according to an August survey from the financial firm Self Financial. Not a fringe. Not a sliver of the unlucky. Half.
The survey polled around 1,000 people, so treat it as a snapshot rather than a census. But the snapshot is brutal. Respondents said high grocery prices hurt their mental health and stress levels more than they hurt their sleep, their diet, or their fitness. People aren't just hungry. They're anxious about being hungry, which is a deeply efficient way to ruin a person's whole life.
Ground Beef Up 67 Percent and Coffee Up 108
Federal data shows grocery prices have climbed 28 percent from September 2020 to September 2026. That's the average, which means somebody is getting hit far worse than the average.
That somebody is anyone who buys ground beef, which has jumped 67 percent. Or anyone who drinks coffee, which has more than doubled at 108 percent. Think about that. A pound of beans costs twice what it did six years ago. The American breakfast, once a cheap and sacred ritual, now requires a payment plan.
There is a cruel joke buried in here. The two items that define a working person's day, a cheap burger and a hot cup of coffee, are exactly the ones that got mugged hardest.
Four Dollar Gas, Now With Record Attendance
Groceries are only half the squeeze. Average gas prices have hit $4 or higher for more days in 2026 than in any previous year on record, according to the price-tracking site GasBuddy. Any year. Ever.
And for anyone hoping this was just the tail end of a Biden hangover, new federal data shows the average cost of all grades of unleaded is higher in Trump's second term than it was under Biden's. So the sales pitch was that prices would come down. The receipt says otherwise.
Paycheck to Paycheck, Now Including Most of the Country
A September study from Goldman Sachs found that just over 60 percent of households earning $50,000 or less are living paycheck to paycheck. That's a number from an investment bank, an institution not historically known for exaggerating the suffering of poor people.
These are the households with no cushion. When beef, coffee, and gas all jump at once, there is no slack to absorb it. Something gives, and what gives is dinner. Which brings us right back to that first number, the one about half the country skipping meals.
Voters Have Noticed, Shockingly
The New York Times and Siena University released a survey Wednesday that should make Republicans lose a little sleep, assuming they can afford the sleep aids. Some 69 percent of voters disapprove of the cost of living under Trump. Another 73 percent disapprove of his handling of gas prices.
Siena Research Institute Executive Director Don Levy put it plainly: voters are unhappy with both parties, but they trust Democrats more on the economy, the cost of living, gas prices, health care, corruption, foreign wars, and AI, by between eight and twenty points. That's a wide margin on nearly every issue that matters. Trump's own voters are watching their grocery bill climb, and the vibes cannot cover it.
The Dingo Take
Do you know what a 108 percent coffee increase feels like when you're already skipping lunch? It feels like being told the economy is booming by a man who has never once looked at a price tag. The numbers here are not subtle. Half the country is skipping meals. Gas has spent more days above $4 this year than in any year ever tracked. Beef is up two thirds. And the person who promised to fix all of this is running a government where the average gas price is now higher than it was under the guy he spent years blaming.
Look, Democrats shouldn't pop champagne over a poll that says voters distrust both parties and merely distrust them slightly less. An eight to twenty point edge on the economy is nice. It is also the political equivalent of being the cleaner restroom at a gas station. Voters are not in love. They are hungry, and they are looking for someone who might notice.
Next week, tens of millions of people get to render a verdict on all of this. They already did the math at the grocery store. The ballot is just the last item in the cart, and unlike the coffee, it still costs nothing.
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