K-shaped economy

I keep seeing that we're in a K-shaped economy, where the rich continue to get richer, and everyone else becomes poorer.

If the US has a "K-shaped economy", then what level of financial success does an individual need to achieve before being pulled into that upward economic slipstream? savvybackpacker 2026

“When people talk about the K-shaped economy, they’re talking about an economy that is being experienced very differently across the population,” said Joanne Hsu, the director of the Surveys of Consumers at the University of Michigan. The wealthy, represented by the line of the K that is angled up, are spending confidently. The less wealthy, the line trending down, are scrambling to make ends meet.

When Did Everything Become ‘K-Shaped’? 2026