U.S. voters split on whether Trump or Harris will make life more affordable

In a sparsely furnished row house in north Philadelphia, Saiyda Bey gets comfortable on a grey chaise lounge. The home smells of incense and her black kitten, Kit Kat, is pacing around the room. 

Bey, 33, proudly wears a "Blacks for Trump" hat she bought for $20 outside the J.D. Vance rally in Pennsylvania earlier this week. She's nervous while looking over a few notes she made in preparation for this interview, yet happy to share her thoughts on the upcoming presidential election.

"I think life would be better under Donald Trump because of his plan to secure more jobs within the impoverished neighbourhoods," said Bey, who, like many Americans, has been struggling with the high cost of living and blames the current government for the state of the economy.  

"I had always been struggling. I just struggled less under Donald Trump's administration."

Americans are divided on which presidential candidate will be able to make life more affordable for middle and lower income families. Neither Donald Trump or Kamala Harris have released a detailed economic platform, yet polls suggest many Americans believe the Republicans are focused on the economy and tax cuts, while the Democrats promise to tax the rich and corporations.

The north Philadelphia neighbourhood where Bey was born and raised has a 39 per cent employment rate and the median annual income was just over $28,000 in 2022, according to U.S. Census data. Most of the people there are African American and live below the poverty line.

Under the Biden administration, the price of groceries has soared and interest rates have risen to the highest they've been since 2001, making it harder for some Americans to pay their mortgages or buy homes. But things are improving, with the Federal Reserve now saying a long-awaited rate cut is on the table for September, which will lower borrowing costs.

"What we are seeing right now is unemployment rate which is very low, and an inflation rate that has reached normal levels," said Francesco D'Acunto, the A. James Clark Chair in Global Real Estate at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

Inflation in the U.S. is currently around three per cent and trending downward toward the target rate, which is two per cent. Two years ago, it was close to 10 per cent, a 40 year high.

However, D'Acunto says wages are growing at a faster rate than inflation, and middle-class households should have already started to see an uptick in their bank accounts as a result.

"Over the last few months, they should have started to see … a reversal of this unbalance," he said.

D'Acunto says inflation began to rise during the pandemic when borders were closed and China was unable to send goods to the U.S., Canada or other countries. That increased the price of goods dramatically, while the war in Ukraine drove up energy prices.

"Those causes were neither due to Trump, back then when inflation started to go up, nor Biden," said D'Acunto.

Bey has three jobs. She works part time as the director of memberships at the YMCA, and tends bar at two different bars. Sometimes, to make ends meet, she has to rent a car so that she can also deliver food for Uber Eats or InstaCart.