Welcome to Trump’s America, The i Paper’s World Insight series presenting the sharpest, deepest thinking on an era-defining shift in history and politics, investigating how Donald Trump and his administration have changed the US and the world – and where we go from here.
• The hidden crisis of overqualified Americans who can’t get jobs• ‘We never changed, Trump did’: Maga’s insurgency against its own leader• The more America spends on healthcare, the sicker it gets
A household income of $120,000 (£88,332) is supposed to sound like success in America. It crosses the symbolic six-figure threshold and places them roughly within the country’s top 35 per cent. Around 87.5 million of America’s 134.8 million households earn less, according to the latest US Census Bureau statistics. It is also $36,270 (£26,695), or 43 per cent, above the national median household income of $83,730 (£61,600).
It suggests good jobs, a stable home and a family that no longer has to examine every supermarket receipt. In Donald Trump’s second term, it is also the sort of household that should benefit from his promise to “make America affordable again”. On taking office, he pledged relief from housing, food, fuel and healthcare costs. Yet, depending on where they live in the country, $120,000 might as well be five different incomes.
