As Americans navigate the continued threat of a recession, a new Morning Consult survey finds that 41% of U.S. adults have taken active steps to prepare for a downturn, with many saving and cutting spending while some have stockpiled supplies.
Public braces for supply issues, leaner times
While saving and budgeting were among the top tasks that would-be preparers hoped to undertake, some respondents also wished to become “preppers” by stockpiling food, purchasing a generator or gardening more. A baby boomer in a household making less than $50,000 a year said he wished he could “stockpile nonperishable food items as well as essential items in the event of shortages and supply issues.”
A few respondents who have prepared for a downturn were unwilling to share what steps they’d taken, even offering a hint of paranoia: a Gen X woman said she was “not gonna share that info. You never know if big brother is watching,” while another Gen X woman said, “let’s just say we’ve taken steps.”
And other respondents’ answers portrayed an overall belt-tightening. A baby boomer woman in a middle-income household said they were working with a financial adviser and were “committed to a tight budget, spending money only on what’s absolutely needed. No major purchases, nothing frivolous.”
For some, changes were smaller, like one millennial male in a household making more than $100,000 a year who said he had “stopped buying desserts.”
The Feb. 16-19, 2023, survey was conducted among a representative sample of 2,203 U.S. adults, with an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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