Most Americans Worried About Recession (Even If They Can’t Define It); Half Say They Could Lose Everything

ST. LOUIS–Three-in-four Americans are worried there will be a recession in 2023, while 69% say one is already here, according to a new Real Estate Witch poll that further found many are also questioning capitalism.

But as Real Estate Witch also acknowledged, “Americans’ scathing assessment of the economy may be shaped more by fear than facts, as more than three-fourths of Americans (77%) say they know the definition of a recession, but just 15% can actually identify the correct answer.”

As the company noted, a recession is loosely defined as two consecutive quarters of GDP decline.

Among the other findings:

• 63% are pessimistic about how the economy will perform in 2023.
• 64% believe fear of a recession could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy
• 87% are preparing for a recession, with 44% saving more money and cutting back on non-essential spending
• 71% also say they have sacrificed their personal happiness to shore up their finances
• 55% say they’d lose everything if there was a recession
• 80% of Americans don’t expect the economy to improve at all in 2023, while nearly half (47%) expect it to get worse
• 58% believe the economy won’t recover to pre-pandemic levels before 2024, while nearly 18% don’t think it will ever recover
• 81% think there will be some type of market crash in 2023
• 93% think the economy was bad in 2022, with 44% saying it’s worse now than during the Great Recession
• 77% worry that the cost of goods and services will continue to rise in 2023, and 70% fear that price hikes could cause them to go into debt
• 21% think the U.S. economy would perform best under capitalism, while about 12% say socialism would be a better alternative
• Boomers (38%) are nearly 2x more likely than Millennials (19%) and Gen Z (18%) to say capitalism is the best economic system 

The full study can be found here.