Covid Stimulus Payments in 2020-21 were completely Absorbed by Inflation in 2022

If you are a working adult, you do not need a news report or a politician to tell you that your dollars have not been going as far over the last year+. A nagging question I have had over the last couple years is just exactly what the net effect was of the stimulus money during the pandemic.

Below is a simple chart that lays out these payments and costs over the last 2 years.

This chart assumes 2 working adults per household making the average US annual income, and one child dependent (this is lumping in all families, including those without children). This is a generous assumption and slightly over-estimates the stimulus payments.

By the end of 2022, the Stimulus’s boost for the average US household had fully dwindled, and by the end of 2022, the cost of inflation resulted in a net loss at over $1000 dollars per household.

This analysis stops at the end of 2022, but knowing that inflation has remained elevated well into 2023, the reality for many families is that every stimulus dollar was completely negated by the end of 2022, and inflation has been a significant factor that has put many families in a deficit and made it more difficult to make it as a working class household.

Take a look at the detailed report from the JEC here:

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