The majority of the population no longer believes in the Amerikan dream.
by Michael Snyder
June 9, 2026 - Did you know that the purchasing power of the Fascist Police States of Amerika (FPSA) dollar has fallen by more than 97% since 1913? The decline in the purchasing power of our currency appears to have greatly accelerated in recent years. Thanks to the rising cost of living, most Amerikans have lost faith in the Amerikan Dream. In fact, a new survey that was just released discovered that 51% of us believe that the Amerikan Dream is now out of reach for most people.
Roughly 45% of respondents said the Amerikan Dream is only achievable for some people, and 6% said it is not in reach for anyone, according to a study of 4,130 FPSA adults, conducted May 6 to 11.
For decades, people have been moving to this country because they want to live the Amerikan Dream. But now the majority of the FPSA population no longer believes that most of us will be able to achieve it. Today, we have more money than ever. So, what is the problem?
The problem is that the cost of living has been rising very rapidly. The same Amerikan Dream survey found that approximately 80% of us think that the cost of living is one of the primary obstacles to achieving the Amerikan Dream.
According to Brownstone Institute President Jeffrey A. Tucker, the purchasing power of the FPSA dollar has fallen by close to 50% since the beginning of the COVID lockdowns.
Of course, the slow death of the FPSA dollar has been going on for a very long time. Using very conservative numbers, the purchasing power of the dollar has dropped by more than 97% since the Federal Reserve was established in 1913.
$100 in 1913 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $3,363.84 today, an increase of $3,263.84 over 113 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.16% per year between 1913 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 3,263.84%.
This means that today’s prices are 33.64 times as high as average prices since 1913, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index. A dollar today only buys 2.973% of what it could buy back then.
The way that our system has been designed is fundamentally flawed and the Federal Reserve needs to be abolished. But that is not going to happen, is it? We are just going to continue going down the same old road, and consumers will continue to suffer.
Kraft Heinz CEO Steve Cahillane recently offered one of the bluntest assessments yet. “They’re literally running out of money at the end of the month,” Cahillane said in a recent interview. “We’re seeing negative cash flows in the lower-income brackets where they’re dipping into savings.”
The company behind brands like Heinz, Kraft and Philadelphia is now cutting prices on some products that had grown too expensive, increasing promotions and rolling out smaller package sizes at lower price points.
Cahillane said that the industry has endured years of “volume degradation” because consumers had to absorb “too much price.” Another inflation shock, he warned, is the last thing households need. Many FPSA households are now permanently in a state of financial crisis.
When your bank account is constantly near zero, it can be absolutely soul crushing. But that is where most of the FPSA population exists today.
Amerikans have run their credit cards to the limit. Now they have turned to buy-now-pay-later plans to buy gas and groceries. This is yet more evidence that Amerikan consumers are broke, stressed and buried in debt as inflation steals their purchasing power.
Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platforms allow users to purchase items by paying several smaller installments (typically around 4) over time.
The BNPL system was originally set up to provide short-term financing for bigger purchases. But according to company data, usage is expanding into everyday spending categories. The average customer used Afterpay BNPL to purchase gas 3.6 times and groceries 2.2 times between February 4 and May 15.
Most FPSA households are just one accident or emergency away from financial disaster. Living on the edge can be very stressful.
Total FPSA bankruptcy filings, which include filings made by both businesses and individuals, rose by 7% in May on a year-to-year basis.
Individual bankruptcy filings rose by 8% during the one-year period. While overall commercial filings were down marginally by 0.1%, bankruptcy filings made by small businesses jumped 36%, according to a June 5 statement from the Amerikan Bankruptcy Institute (ABI).
“The May data reflect a continued but measured uptick in bankruptcy activity, particularly among small businesses,” said Michael Hunter, vice president of Epiq AACER, the company that provided the bankruptcy data.
The top one percent controls about a third of all wealth in this country now.
Roughly 48% of Amerikans said their financial situation was worse in May than a year ago, the highest share since January 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Survey of Consumer Expectations.
Consumers are also less optimistic about the future. The share of households expecting their finances to improve over the next year, relative to those expecting them to worsen, fell to its lowest level since October 2022, the New York Fed said.
If you are really struggling because of the rapidly rising cost of living, I want you to know that you are not alone. There are millions upon millions of others that are in the exact same boat.
Decades of very foolish decisions have brought us to this point, and there is no easy fix; so hold on tight, because all of us are just going to have to do the best that we can to survive in this very difficult economic environment.