Survey: Americans haven’t been this gloomy about their finances since Peter Frampton came ‘Alive!’

It was way back in 1976 — just as Gerald Ford was leaving office and and waves of Republican scandal still lingered, the Cold War was peaking, KISS was still wearing make-up, and Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive! was released — that Americans felt this dismal about their own situations, according to a recent Gallup Poll. The reason? It’s the economy, stupid. Fifty-five percent of Americans say they are worse off financially than they were a year ago. Nearly half of Americans say they are “struggling.”

In 2000, the proportion of those who felt they were worse off financially than the year before was only 22 percent. By 2001, after Bush’s first year in office, that number jumped to 36 percent, with 53 percent believing the economic conditions in the country were getting worse.

As USA Today notes, such a weak economic outlook has led voters in the past to oust the political party in the White House. Ironically, another Gallup Poll notes what that organization calls an “inexplicable” jump in America’s overall optimism: Two-thirds of Americans believe the U.S. will be better off five years from now. The level of collective optimism is the highest it’s been in four years.