Did you know that the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar has fallen by more than 97 percent since 1913? Sadly, as you will see below, the decline in the purchasing power of our currency appears to have greatly accelerated in recent years. Thanks to the rising cost of living, most Americans have lost faith in the American Dream. In fact, a new survey that was just released discovered that 51 percent of us believe that the American Dream is now out of reach for most people…

Just over half of Americans say the American Dream is out of reach for most people right now, according to a new CNBC and SurveyMonkey American Dream Pulse Survey.

Roughly 45% of respondents said the American Dream is only achievable for some people, and 6% said it's not in reach for anyone, according to a study of 4,130 U.S. adults, conducted May 6 to 11.

I was stunned when I read that.

For decades, people have been moving to this country because they want to live the American Dream.

But now the majority of the U.S. population no longer believes that most of us will be able to achieve it.

Today, we have more money than ever.

So what's the problem?

The problem is that the cost of living has been rising very rapidly. The same survey that I referenced above found that approximately 80 percent of us think that the cost of living is one of the primary obstacles to achieving the American Dream…

Roughly four in five survey respondents identified cost of living as one of their biggest financial hurdles to achieving the American Dream. Three in five cited housing prices, almost half pointed to healthcare costs and nearly as many blamed low wages.

For years, I warned that the decisions that our leaders were making would result in very painful inflation.

Unfortunately, that is precisely what occurred.