American Voters of All Backgrounds Face Financial Stress, Demand Restitution From Corporations and Politicians

By Anika Dandekar and Lew Blank

In the richest country in the world, economic inequality is at an all time high. Wages are eroding in value, the Child Tax Credit has expired, costs of basic necessities are overwhelming consumers, and large corporations are gouging prices and killing small businesses. Conservative elected officials are doing everything in their power to preserve this upward distribution of wealth. It should be no surprise then that Americans are stressed about money. 

While it has been a long-known fact that nonvoters, about a third of the adult population, are significantly less wealthy than voters, new Data for Progress open-ended responses and polling show that even a majority of the voting population is stressed by money — and that Americans attribute their financial stress to politicians and corporations who prevent an equitable distribution of wealth. 

Open-ended Question Regarding Stress Reveals Widespread Financial Stress

In a survey conducted in early January of this year, we first provided voters with a space for text entry, and asked them to name their biggest stressor in life in an open-ended question. We find that terms associated with financial stress like “money” (161 citations), “finances” and “financial” (113 total citations), and “bills” (46 citations) are the most commonly cited words. “Work,” “family,” and “health” are each also cited 60 times or more throughout the responses. Below is a graphic where the size of text is proportional to the number of times the word is mentioned in these open responses.

 
 

We then categorized each of these responses into one of the following 13 categories: personal finances, personal health, family, work, pandemic, school, media, politics, loneliness, other people, future, no stress, and miscellaneous. You can view each of the responses and their coded categories here

For example, a West Virginian woman’s response, “traffic,” was categorized as “miscellaneous.”

A few respondents named more than one stressor and were thus added to multiple categories. In one instance, a man from Florida wrote, “My wife of over 55 years wants a divorce because of financial problems.” Based on this, we identified his major stressors as “family” and “personal finances.” 

Overall, we find that a plurality of voters name personal finances as their top stressor in life, followed by family, miscellaneous, personal health, politics, and work.

 
 

Financial insecurity stood out clearly as the one thing that causes voters from all backgrounds the most stress in life. “Cost of living” was cited by five voters. Living “paycheck to paycheck” stresses out an Independent Texas man in his 40s. A Republican woman in her 50s from Oklahoma stresses about “not having enough money to cover basic needs.” An Independent man from Pennsylvania in his 40s says “looking for a job to catch up on bills” stresses him the most. A Democratic man from Virginia in his 30s feels as though it is “impossible for [him] to climb out of the financial hole that [he’s] in.” A Republican Indiana woman over 70 says her “credit card debt” causes her more stress than anything else in her life. A Democratic Arizona woman in her 60s is stressed about “aging without financial security after a lifetime of working.” Regarding his top stressor, an Independent Georgia man in his 20s says simply: “money.”

Follow-up Survey Confirms Financial Stress, With Voters Saying Corporations and Politicians Are Responsible

In order to further explore these open-ended findings, we conducted a second survey from January 5 to 7, 2022. We asked this new set of voters about financial stress specifically. When voters are asked whether their personal or family financial situation regularly causes them stress, we find that 56 percent report financial stress, while 44 percent do not feel financial stress on a regular basis. This finding holds true not just across partisan lines but also across racial identities. Over three-quarters of Latino/a voters and 61 percent of Black voters say their personal or family financial situation regularly causes them stress. Black and Latino/a voters face systemic barriers to wealth accumulation, wage gaps, and numerous biases in hiring practices based on racial identity alone. Despite historical race-based privileges — and thus lower relative financial stress levels — even a majority (53 percent) of white voters report stressful financial situations.

 
 

Progressives and conservatives regularly battle over who is at fault for Americans’ financial stress. Progressives point out that our economic system is horrendously skewed toward the wealthy and powerful, while conservatives blame individuals for their “poor decision-making.” We find that a majority of voters — 53 percent — believe that Americans’ financial stress stems from corporations and politicians preventing a fair distribution of wealth, with only 38 percent blaming Americans’ decision-making. Majorities of Democrats and Independents attribute Americans’ financial stress to corporations and politicians over poor life decisions, with respective net margins of +48 and +16 percentage points. Even 37 percent of Republicans say financial stress is caused by corporations and politicians preventing wealth from being shared fairly. 

 
 

We then asked voters about what role the federal government has in remedying Americans’ financial stress. Fifty-eight percent of voters believe that the federal government has a role to play in alleviating financial stress, and this holds true among majorities of Democrats and Independents, as well as 39 percent of Republicans. Expanding the social safety net and establishing a livable national minimum wage are just a few among many policy options available to the federal government in mitigating Americans’ financial stress. We at Data for Progress have repeatedly found these policy options to be very popular among voters.

 
 

Then, we asked if corporations should play a role in improving financial stress. We find that majorities of voters across partisan lines think corporations should be addressing financial stress. Democrats, Independents, and Republicans support this position by +71, +41, and +15 percentage points, on net. American voters’ stance is clear: Corporations need to make changes to their practices. Corporations can allow employees to collectively bargain, give adequate paid family and medical leave, refrain from monopoly behavior, and pay their fair share of taxes to society. 

 
 

Takeaways

Broadly, these findings demonstrate that Americans across partisan and demographic lines are overwhelmingly anxious about their financial situations. American voters want this financial stress addressed through action from corporations and the federal government, and do not buy conservative arguments blaming individuals’ “poor decision-making.” Large corporations, though unfortunately not held accountable by the will of the people, should note that they stand to benefit from a healthy, functioning economy in which consumers have disposable income and employees are financially secure. Members of Congress, on the other hand, must be responsive to their constituents’ needs. Elected representatives have a mandate from voters to pursue policy options that ensure Americans will not be constantly stressed by money. Widespread financial insecurity should be especially shameful in this country, whose wealthy leaders regularly boast the largest economy on the planet.


Anika Dandekar (@AnikaDandekar) is a polling analyst at Data for Progress.

Lew Blank (@LewBlank) is a senior writer at Data for Progress.