How insecurity can worsen inequality. For Marketplace, I'm Novosafo and for David Brancaccio. A key theme

in American life right now is uncertainty, whether that has to do with the rising cost of living,

the flurry of actions by the Trump administration, or even costly natural disasters. All of this adds up to uncertainty, and it has Americans on edge.

In fact, the latest University of Michigan survey of consumers finds sentiment down significantly across ideological lines.

And Alyssa Quart, executive director at the nonprofit Economic Hardship Reporting Project, says, pervasive uncertainty can pave the way for deeper inequality.

She has a new piece in Time magazine titled How Insecurity Became the New Inequality.

She spoke with David Brancaccio.

People in, for instance, North Carolina or California out searching for rentals because their house was destroyed in a disaster, they don't feel less secure.

They are in terrible ways actually less secure when policies change with this new presidential administration.

Some may feel more secure, others less.

But you, Alyssa, you think

insecurity like this leads to inequality, widening the gap between rich and poor.

It's not just a gap between haves and have-nots, but it's those who can't absorb the blows

of things like the L.A. fires or the mudslides in Kentucky and so on

and so forth, and middle class people who can't keep up with inflation or the tariffs that

will rise our prices. So this is insecurity as much as it is in inequality, and they're

inextricably linked.

No, I mean, I think there's a lot of logic in this.

Insecurity can be seen as like a reverse indicator for well-being, right?

You can track insecurity, and when it goes up, it's not something that you want or that society wants.

Right.

Insecurity has become an indicator that scholars now assess societal well-being. There's the economic policy uncertainty index. They talk about uncertainty

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