Posted on 01/29/2026 4:49:47 AM PST by MtnClimber
“Affordability.” That’s the new political mantra of Democratic politicians. Or maybe it’s one of two mantras, the other being that deporting illegal aliens makes ICE the modern-day “Gestapo.”
So, how to achieve “affordability”? There are two approaches, which are essentially opposites of each other. Can they both be right?
Approach Number 1 is that the government orders producers not to increase prices, and sometimes also offers handouts of one sort or another to favored constituencies to reduce their effective costs. Approach Number 2 is that the government mostly keeps out of the relationship between producers and consumers, and thereby makes the producers reduce their costs if they want to attract customers.
My observation would be that there exists an enormous amount of evidence on this subject, all of which supports that proposition that Approach Number 2 works, while Approach Number 1 is counter-productive. But maybe that’s just me.
So there was Mikie Sherrill last week in Newark, getting inaugurated as the new (Democratic) Governor of New Jersey. New Jersey was one of only two states that had gubernatorial elections in 2025, the other being Virginia; and in both cases the winning (Democratic) candidates made “affordability” the central theme of their campaigns. For Sherrill, among various areas of concern, the most significant as to “affordability” was electricity. The cost of electricity to consumers in New Jersey had soared by some 15-25% within just the past year under prior (Democratic) Governor Phil Murphy.
Murphy had spent his eight years in office setting aggressive “green” energy targets and promoting wind and solar electricity generation as the wave of the future. In a piece in October 2025, New Jersey Monitor summarized Murphy’s approach to electricity generation:
Murphy’s energy goals were always ambitious. In successive pronouncements, the governor called for New Jersey to draw 100% of its energy from clean [i.e., wind and solar] sources, first by 2050 and then by 2035.
Here is their summary of Murphy’s record as to implementation of his green energy plans:
Murphy presided over a broad expansion of solar power in New Jersey[;] his greater plans to produce thousands of megawatts in offshore wind generation ultimately failed to create any new power, even as some existing power plants were shuttered. . . .
Readers here will not be surprised that Murphy’s plans resulted in rate increases in New Jersey beyond the national norms.
So in the face of Murphy’s record, how is Sherrill now going to achieve the Holy Grail of “affordability” in electricity prices? She addressed the subject in her inaugural address, delivered on January 20:
I’ve heard you, New Jersey — we are facing an affordability crisis, and you want costs to come down. And you want that to begin today. . . . So, right now, yes, before I even finish this speech, I am going to sign my first in a series of executive orders to declare a State of Emergency on Utility Costs.
Step 1: declare a state of emergency! Surely that will work. What else?
I am issuing an Executive Order giving the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities the authority to pause new utility requests for additional rate increases, and I will freeze rate hikes to finally provide families with real relief on their energy bills.
Step 2: decree a rate freeze! Another sure thing. And then there’s Step 3:
I am issuing an Executive Order directing the Board of Public Utilities to open solicitations for new solar and storage power generation, to modernize gas and nuclear generation. . . .
In short, it’s the usual prescription of backing politically favored but costly producers and attempting to order prices not to increase. At least Sherrill didn’t rule out continuing to use existing gas and nuclear generators (although her use of the term “modernize” in this context would seem to imply only upgrading existing facilities as opposed to building any new ones). We’ll have to check back in four years to see how New Jersey’s electricity rates have performed as compared to those in other states that let the utilities build the least costly production.
As our attempt to peer into New Jersey’s future, we can look to California. That state has gotten way out ahead of the others in building new “renewable” electricity generation capacity, in their case mostly solar. California has also similarly followed my “Approach Number 1” to affordability in numerous other areas, from gasoline production to housing, and many others. Something called the Transparency Foundation then did a big Study that came out in November 2025, benchmarking the costs of various things in California versus the norms of the other states. The title of the Study is “The Cost of California 2025.”
Let’s start with the cost of electricity. You will find the Transparency Foundation’s cost comparisons in a chart on page 14 of the Study:
Electricity costs are 101% higher versus the national average. That’s almost exactly double. Keep at it, New Jersey, and you can get there. Just keep building solar and wind generators — plus the backup and storage needed to make them work even a little.
Go through the Transparency Foundation Study on California, and in one category after another California is not just a little, but a lot more expensive than the national norms. Gasoline prices are 50% higher than the national norm; housing costs are 50% to 124% higher. (depending on data source) Granted, this last category requires some judgment calls, but whichever data source is used the comparison is not even close.
Well, New Jersey, you voted for the candidate who promised to deliver “affordability” via decrees and subsidized producers. You’ll just have to be example number two thousand of why this approach doesn’t work.
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Manhattan Contrarian ping
In my hood, it costs about $500sqft to build a house. A lot will be 200k. So, for a 1500sqft home expect to be out about 1,000,000 at closing. Is that affordable? Oh, so drive a few miles you say and live cheaper...now the price is about 800k. That’s better.
1. Dont live in deep blue areas
2. Dont live beyond your means
Stop basing local property taxes on square footage of dwelling.
Note that quite a few people believe that young people could afford a home if they just stopped buying coffee at Starbucks. The problem isn't expensive coffee. The problem is $1M starter homes.
Same reason New Jersey has the highest auto insurance rates in the nation. The only solution is deregulation but there is no way a deep blue state is going to allow the free market economy to work.
In almost all cases there is no government solution to make products affordable.
Here is all you need to know, in the last few years New Jersey has more than doubled the minimum wage. What do you think that does to prices at every level?
That is crazy expensive. I live in FL and my house is 40% the cost of $500/sq ft and it is on a lot just over 1 acre, 150 ft of beach on a lake that is 3 miles across.
Mandates of course. The more extortive the better..
The folks that drink starbucks dont want the troubles of having to buy and work on a 500k starter home.
Stay out of the University, serve an apprenticeship in a needed occupation, work hard and save your money and stay the hell away from the dumbocrapy party.!
You can buy a really nice house in Waverly, NY or Big Stone Gap, Va for $300k or the same size house in Boone/Blowing Rock NC for $1M.
In my town you can build a nice home for that sum, but it will come with a hefty tax bill of around $10K+ per year..
Biggest costs are taxes and housing and biggest squeeze is that coupled with declining real wages.
The one answer for all those issues is sending 50 million illegals home. Lots of disruption, but a wonderful rebirth for our country and the American dream.
Yes home prices are insane. I live in rural Wisconsin in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath mobile home with a garage on about an acre of land. It has a huge deck for morning coffee and watching the wild life that strolls threw. River at the end of the block and 2 of Wisconsin largest lakes are within miles. Bought for less than $100,000 in 2022 after downsizing.
Most first time home owners dont buy a new build starter home. Many of us have bought fixer uppers and put enough sweat equity into the homes we own. It seems alot of the younger generation doesnt want to put work in their home. Yet complain they cant afford a home.
Those who prate about “affordability” seem to have no idea on how to accomplish the sleight of hand, relying almost entirely on transfer payments from the more wealthy to the “less fortunate”.
How about making the “less fortunate” much more accountable for their OWN well-being, and giving up the victim persona. People live about as well as they want to, it is a matter or realigning the needs with the wants. Poverty is a state of mind, not a matter of possession of goods or currency with which to purchase the goods.
Depends on how far you are willing to drive to.
My area became unaffordable to me 20 years ago. I sold my very small home in this expensive area and bought a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath 3000 sqft home with just the proceeds in an area over 2000 miles away. The new area was safer, more affordable, and had better schools.
I had been earning over $100K a year and lived paycheck to paycheck in my old hometown. We now live comfortably on $50K a year and own my own business.
Very nice new construction homes around here are now $350K to $400K.
It can be done. You just have to pull the trigger.
Move out of the big cities and you can buy very affordable homes.
If you are a STEM, law, or Medicine major. College makes sense. Otherwise you are probably wasting your money.
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