Money is everyone’s biggest stressor — and they want companies to help

• In a survey, voters said financial problems caused most of their stress.
• Most also said they held the government and corporations responsible for easing their burden.
• Biden’s social-safety-net legislation stalled as corporations made record profits amid the pandemic.

Americans of all backgrounds agree that money — or a lack of it — is the root of their stress. And they say the powers that be are responsible. 

Last month, a survey of over 1,300 people from the think tank Data for Progress found that in an open-ended question, American voters named personal finances as the top stressor in their lives by far.

A follow-up survey showed that most voters, of all political affiliations, said that large corporations should help improve Americans’ financial situations. Most voters overall said that the federal government shared the same responsibility, although Republicans as a group disagreed with that assertion. 

The survey came as Americans found that their dollar didn’t go as far, as inflation reached a 40-year high and raised the price of everything from gas to groceries to cars last year. Though wages overall have gone up amid a competition for workers, rising inflation has largely offset that increase. Corporations have cited inflation as a reason to raise prices, largely making products more expensive than they need to be to offset inflation in order to protect profits. Overall, corporations are doing better than they were before the pandemic. 

Americans’ savings have suffered during the same period. The pandemic has eaten young adults’ savings, inflation has caused many retirees to worry that they’ll outlive their savings, and most homeowners find it hard to pay their expenses after their mortgage bills are settled.

Republicans and Democrats are split on what the government’s role is, but they agree on corporations’ responsibility

In the open-ended question, almost a third of survey respondents told Data for Progress that something related to their personal finances was the top stressor in their lives. Their answers mentioned issues such as “cost of living,” “paycheck to paycheck,” and “credit card debt.” 

The percentage of voters of color who cited money problems as their top stressor was even greater: 77% of Latino voters and 61% of Black voters said their personal or familial financial situations regularly caused them stress. Black and Latino families have less access to wealth than their white counterparts and face more hiring biases. But it’s important to note that in a survey such as this one, Hispanic or Latino can include multiple races, including Black, white, mestizo, or indigenous peoples.

Even though voters of color overrepresented financial concerns, most white voters expressed the same anxiety, with 53% of them also reporting financial stress. 

Family problems, “miscellaneous,” and personal health issues clocked in at the next three spots for voters’ greatest stressors.

Democrats and Republicans — or even more broadly, progressives and conservatives — often argue over what the role of the government is in Americans’ financial lives, with the importance of “personal responsibility” — the language used in this survey — being a hallmark of Republican messaging. Democrats are generally more inclined to want to fund a social safety net, something congressional Democrats have sparred with their Republican peers over during the pandemic. The latter seems to have won for now, killing President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better package early this month. 

But the survey found that most American voters, 58%, believed the government’s job was to help their financial situations. Those respondents were mostly Democrats, who overwhelmingly supported that notion — with 81% agreeing. But 52% of independent voters also agreed. Republican voters agreed with their party leaders, with 52% saying it wasn’t the government’s job to help. 

But more people are united across partisan lines when it comes to framing corporations as responsible, especially in light of their record-breaking profits coupled with record-high inflation during the pandemic. Sixty-six percent of all voters said they thought corporations should help improve Americans’ financial situations, which included 82% of Democrats, 63% of independent voters, and 53% of Republicans. 

“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,” Anika Dandekar and Lew Blank, who conducted the survey, wrote in a report. “Members of Congress, on the other hand, must be responsive to their constituents’ needs.”