Americans have a bleak outlook about both the nation’s financial health and their own, according to the 2014 American Values Survey released Tuesday by the Public Religion Research Institute.
The Ford Foundation-funded study revealed nearly three out of every four Americans (72 percent) believe the recession is still on.
And fewer than one out of 10 Americans (7 percent) say they are in excellent financial health themselves. About a third of the people in the survey said they or someone else in their household had to cut back on food in the last year to save money.
Nearly half of those polled said the American dream once held true but doesn’t anymore, while 7 percent said the dream never held true.
Two-thirds of adults believe the economic system unfairly favors the wealthy.
Prosperity in the nation continues to divide Americans along race and ethnic fault lines. Blacks and Hispanics are facing economic insecurity at double the rates of whites.
For the study, 4,500 Americans 18 and over were interviewed between July 21 and August 15.