Iran’s market no longer experiences stability. Prices are rising at a pace that wages cannot even begin to match. Food inflation has surpassed 110%, and many essential goods have multiplied in price in less than a year. Under such conditions, a collapsed economy is not merely a media expression; it is an accurate description of a reality that millions of Iranians experience every day.
For years, the Iranian regime concealed the economic crisis through manipulated statistics, repetitive promises, and staged meetings, but now the gap between the official narrative and the reality of people’s lives has become too deep to deny. Even media outlets close to the power structure have been forced to speak about record-high inflation and the collapse of living standards. When essential food items rise in price by 148% within a single year, the issue is no longer merely “high prices”; the issue is the collapse of the ability to live.
Aftermath of the War: Iranian Workers’ Lives in Grip of a Livelihood Crisis
Food inflation; the gradual elimination of normal life
Inflation in Iran is no longer limited to the currency, automobile, or housing markets. The crisis has now reached the heart of the household dining table. Bread, rice, oil, dairy products, and meat, which are considered the foundations of daily nutrition, have become difficult goods to purchase. This situation has targeted lower-income groups and the middle class more than anyone else.
According to published data, liquid cooking oil has increased in price by more than 300% over one year, while Iranian rice has become about 173% more expensive. Even products such as eggs and chicken, once considered cheaper substitutes for meat, are now beyond the reach of many families. The result of this trend is the gradual removal of protein and essential food items from people’s tables.
A collapsed economy does not only mean declining welfare; it also means the forced transformation of lifestyles. Families that until a few years ago could maintain a minimum level of food security are now trapped between paying rent and buying food. Many households have reduced meat consumption to limited occasions, and some have even given up purchasing fruit and dairy products.
Meanwhile, official propaganda and the statements of regime officials have deepened the gap of distrust rather than bringing reassurance. When the agriculture minister speaks of the absence of “excessive overpricing” while the prices of oil and rice have multiplied, society sees such remarks not as economic analysis but as an insult to its lived experience. The regime tries to explain the crisis through word games, but the reality of people’s dining tables does not change with words.
The erosion of the middle class and the economy of survival
One of the most dangerous consequences of a collapsed economy is the gradual destruction of the middle class. A class that in any society is considered the pillar of social stability and the engine of economic development is now collapsing in Iran under the pressure of inflation, unemployment, and job insecurity.
Employees, teachers, workers, and small business owners work harder every day, yet gain less. Wage increases are effectively swallowed by inflation before they are even paid. The official minimum wage covers only a limited portion of household food expenses, and a large share of people’s income is spent on survival rather than living.
In such an environment, psychological insecurity is also spreading. People are not only worried about today’s prices; they fear a future in which no clear horizon can be seen. The collapse of the rial’s value, soaring rents, the medicine crisis, and instability in the labor market have pushed society into a state of permanent anxiety. This situation creates a silent erosion whose effects go beyond the economy and damage social relations, mental health, and collective hope.
The reality is that Iranian society no longer trusts promises and meetings. People are becoming poorer every day, and the gap between income and expenses is widening at an unprecedented speed. When 66% of the minimum wage is spent on securing the most basic food items, it is no longer possible to speak of “economic management.” These conditions present the image of a collapsed economy in which survival has replaced living.
Historical experience shows that societies left for long periods under the pressure of inflation, poverty, and instability sooner or later enter a phase of social and political crisis. A society that loses its hope can no longer be calmed by official statistics or regime meetings. The removal of meat from the table, the inability to pay rent, and permanent anxiety are realities that cannot be hidden behind any chart.
Today, millions of Iranians live in an economy that can no longer provide the minimum requirements of a normal life. This is the point at which a collapsed economy goes beyond an economic concept and turns into a human and social crisis; a crisis that grows deeper every day and casts a heavier shadow over the country’s future.
