By Barrington Salmon
“When you think it’s peace and safety, it’s sudden destruction …” – Jamaican Proverb, derived from 1 Thessalonians 5:3
Moneywise, WalletHub, Forbes, and Yahoo Finance reported recently that Florida is the second most distressed state in the union in terms of its residents’ debt obligations.
The state saw a 23% increase in the share of people with distressed bank accounts between 2024 and 2025, the data show. In addition, Florida holds the sixth-highest overall share of people with accounts in distress, at 7.3%.
“Measuring the share of residents in financial distress is a good way to take the pulse of a state and see whether people are generally thriving or having trouble making ends meet,” said Chip Lupo, a WalletHub analyst.
“When you combine data about people delaying payments with other metrics like bankruptcy filings and credit score changes, it paints a good picture of the overall economic trends of a state,” he added.
In human terms, this financial distress looks like a sharp increase in bankruptcy filings; residents with accounts in forbearance or deferred payments; America’s lowest average credit scores; and higher prices for groceries, rent, mortgages, gasoline, and health care.
Americans are struggling to pay their bills, even turning to credit to pay for essentials. A recent LendingTree survey found that one-quarter of buy-now-pay-later users have used these loans to buy groceries.
“The last few years have been a whirlwind for Americans’ finances, with inflation, fluctuating unemployment, public health crises and natural disasters making it hard for people across the country to pay their bills,” the WalletHub website says.
In the most recent presidential election, political pundits say, the electorate voted for Donald Trump because of their anxiety and deep frustration with the price of everything.
Electoral implications
According to Clare Goudreau of the Johns Hopkins Hub, “Rising costs were top of mind as voters cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential election. According to exit polls from CBS News, 75% of voters reported that inflation had caused moderate or severe hardship for them over the past year, with 45% saying they were worse off now than they were four years ago. During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to end inflation and strengthen the economy.”
Trump’s promise has fallen flat as inflation has spiraled upwards since he assumed office in January. Corporate greed; Trump’s zig-zag, on-again-off-again tariff folly; and economic factors that most folks don’t understand continue to upend ordinary people’s lives.
A significant swath of Floridians are feeling considerable pain, caught in “working homelessness,” trying to cope with the affordable housing crisis, stagnant wages, medical debt, and student-loan and credit card debt. Meanwhile, wages and salaries fall far short of supporting families.
Meanwhile, economic data show that Florida’s economy ostensibly is strong, with a GDP of $1.76 trillion after years of explosive expansion. While the state is expected to continue outperforming the national average in GDP growth, the rate is expected to slow to more typical, sustainable levels in coming years.
This is not unlike the stock market, which has experienced heady growth for the last several years. The market closed the first half of 2025 at record highs, recovering from an April drop. Some analysts see potential for further gains. Experts see Big Tech, international stocks, and AI-related companies as potential areas of continued outperformance.
The downturn has already begun
But the wealth isn’t trickling down.
A Florida Realtors report notes that, as of mid-2025, a family of four in Florida needs an annual income of $217,651 to live “comfortably,” including savings and discretionary spending. This is significantly higher than the state’s median income.
As deleterious as these circumstances for Florida families, more danger lies ahead.
Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, says the U.S. economy is standing on shaky ground and, for many states, the downturn has already begun. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are showing clear signs of recession, marked by economic weakness and job losses that are likely to continue. Another 13 states are “treading water,” he said.
Zandi told MarketWatch, “The economy is still not in recession, but the risks are very high. We’re on the precipice,” as quoted in the report. He warned that the overall U.S. economy is vulnerable and could be pushed into a contraction by even a modest shock.
Much of this weakness stems from economic policy, Zandi said. He noted that Trump’s tariffs on imported goods have created growing uncertainty, disrupted global supply chains, and forced companies to halt plans to expand. A lack of labor-force growth this year has also contributed to the slowdown, he said.
Their problems are driven largely by a mix of slowing immigration, increasing tariffs, and federal job cuts, Zandi argues.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and his MAGA cohort are distracted, however, consolidating political power at the expense of the populace, punishing their enemies and rewarding their friends, and leveraging state and federal funds to bully perceived enemies into compliance. Floridians must organize at the grass roots to fight back.
As the 2024 presidential election showed, in poll after poll, inflation was a major factor in how people voted; now, bubbling anger over the high cost of living can fuel the removal of incumbents.
Floridians concerned about the high cost of living must force government officials to spend more on healthcare, affordable housing, education, higher wages, and support of labor unions so that residents can gain higher incomes.
They have no choice.
Journalist Barrington Salmon lived and wrote in Florida (Miami and Tallahassee) for almost 20 years. He is a 2017 Annenberg National Fellow (University of Southern California) who currently freelances for publications, including the National Newspaper Publishers Association/Black Press USA, Trice Edney Newswire and The Washington Informer. Salmon lives in the nation’s capital and can be heard on his video blog “Speak Freely with Barrington Salmon and NNPA’s “Let It Be Known.”
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