How the economy affects you is probably your major day-to-day concern. Your core financial worries are most likely related to (1) your employment, (2) where you live and (3) what will you eat. Trump’s pre-election promises of new job creation, affordable housing, lower gasoline prices and grocery price reductions probably determined how you voted in the November 2024 election. If you believed what Trump promised, it gave you hope and optimism and he got your vote.

These promises, however, have turned out to be empty words. Your present reality is far different, far more uncertain and far more difficult than you expected. Let’s compare words to deeds.

Your employment status now and in the future depends on how the economy fares. When small business owners as well as CEOs of large corporations are unable to project what their costs and incomes might be, they don’t commit to spending on workers’ salaries and materials and the economy spirals down. The imposition of tariffs causes these uncertainties and puts lots of middle-class jobs at risk as the economy contracts.

Tariffs are a tax on consumers, who now pay a higher price for the same item that cost less prior to the tariff. Tariffs are also a double tax because they promote inflation, which itself is a “tax” because it costs more to buy the same object during an inflationary period.

Is your job safe and will it pay you enough to cover the “tariff tax” on your disposable income? For the middle class, the most obvious downside of the new tariffs will be the loss of disposable income averaging about $3,800-$4,200 per household, according to the Budget Lab at Yale. This makes middle-class job security more important than ever. If you are closing in on retirement, will your IRA or 401(k) lose so much in value in the stock market from the effects of the uncertainty caused by the tariffs that you may have to postpone retirement?

Where you live affects your emotional stability. Is your neighborhood safe enough to allow your kids to walk to school or to a nearby park to play or for you to take an evening stroll after work? Is the neighborhood school safe and does it provide a good education for your children? Is your house large enough for your family to live together comfortably with enough personal space for each member? Is your home close to your workplace so you don’t waste time traveling to and from work and you don’t have high bus or train fares or gasoline expenses? Gas prices have not dropped as promised.

Interest rates play an outsized role in the housing market. When rates are low, it costs less to finance a new home loan or a remodel loan. When the economy is burdened with inflation, interest rates are higher, adding to purchasing or remodeling loan costs as well as adding to construction materials costs. While the new tariffs are increasing inflationary pressures by adding to the prices of goods, the Federal Reserve cannot continue its ongoing reductions of interest rates. In fact, rates could rise if inflation increases.

If you want to move, you may find this difficult to do. Promised affordable housing has not materialized and loan costs have remained high in spite of promises they would not. These things are true because of our present tariff situation.

What you eat is based on grocery prices and availability. We were promised that grocery prices would fall immediately after Jan. 20 but they have not. The example that Mr. Trump used over and over again was the price of eggs, which he said would fall dramatically. But that has not happened. Your food budget determines whether you can afford to go out to a restaurant or have to eat at home, be it steak or mac and cheese. Healthy foods such as some fruits and vegetables have to be imported because they cannot be grown in our climate (e.g., bananas), and the tariffs will make them more expensive. Cheap processed fast foods may become the only affordable foods for a large middle-class family, resulting in costly health issues.

In 2024, the middle class was concerned about the economy and how it would affect them. There were some thoughts about climate change, DEI and certainly about immigration, but the overriding factor causing the middle class to support Donald Trump in 2024 was his list of promises to alter the economy to benefit the middle class. However, the three major middle class concerns above have not been helped by Trump’s tariff-altered economy and, instead, have been exacerbated by his actions. The middle class needs to face reality and vote for senators and congresspeople who will stand up to Mr. Trump and refuse to allow him to run over our middle class.

Jack Crosland

Ogden