Americans Are Turning to GoFundMe Just to Get By

At this point, you have to have been trapped in space for the last two years not to notice that the cost of living is onerously high. Or you could just be the Treasury secretary. In any case, there’s no shortage of metrics that show Americans are struggling: rising credit card delinquencies, a spike in foreclosure filings, surging demand for food banks, or the growing number of high-income Americans deciding to shop at budget stores like Dollar Tree.

Alternatively, you could just look at GoFundMe. In October last year, GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan disclosed that the category the company calls “essentials,” which he defined as “things like rent, utility bills, car payments, sort of your basic things you need to get through life,” had “gone up significantly in the last three years” virtually everywhere the company does business.