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Posted on 12/12/2025 10:47:59 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The current political buzz term is affordability crisis. Every day, political pundits and politicians talk about the affordability crisis because they know it represents an existential threat to the American dream.
The affordability crisis faced by tens of millions of Americans is more than a political slogan; it is a visceral struggle that causes chronic stress and anxiety, breeds hopelessness and apathy, begets envy and rage, and sows disillusionment and nihilism.
In other words, the affordability crisis that is making it impossible for hard-working Americans to get ahead is untenable. If it is not solved holistically, it will likely foster social chaos that could result in radical socio-economic changes like the implementation of American socialism.
The time for political posturing and pontificating is over. Americans need viable solutions to the cost-of-living crisis before it is too late. Below are five simple solutions that are intended to address the root causes of the affordability crisis.
Government Spending
The fundamental driver of inflation that is crushing the lower- and middle-classes and has warped the overall economy is out-of-control spending by the federal government. The national government spends, prints, and borrows trillions of dollars each year, which devalues the currency and creates asset bubbles that are advantageous to the rich.
It is incumbent that Congress cut spending back to pre-pandemic levels, balance the budget, and institute long-term reforms for insolvent entitlement programs.
Housing Supply
Real estate agents say it’s all about location whereas economists would say it’s all about supply.
Clearly, the U.S. housing market is suffering from a supply shortage. The reasons for the lack of supply are varied: a huge increase in immigration under President Biden, decades of onerous environmental regulations, restrictive zoning rules, high property taxes, burdensome building codes, rent freezes, big banks buying single-family homes...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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The next big issue in affordability will be (drumroll) ... HEALTHCARE!!
We’re going to encounter 2 things come January if nothing gets done:
1) Americans face sharply higher healthcare costs due to the expiration of federal subsidies, rising hospital and drug prices, and employer cost‑shifting. Premiums for Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans are expected to jump significantly, while employers brace for one of the steepest benefit cost escalations in over a decade.
2) Another GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN if there’s no agreement on how to solve the healthcare problem.
Like education, the cost of health care has far outpaced inflation. Although most blame the exorbitant cost of health care on greedy corporations, the real culprit is government intervention.
As government has become more embedded in health care spending and decisions, the cost of care has skyrocketed, and the quality of care has plummeted.
The solution is putting Americans, not government, at the center of the health care decision-making process via programs like health ownership accounts, direct primary agreements, and many more consumer-driven ideas.
In a perfect world, Americans would buy health insurance like they buy auto insurance. It would be portable, not tied to one’s job, not a one-size-fits-all policy, tailored to the unique needs and circumstances of individuals/families, etc.
Perhaps we should allow people who are young and healthy to purchase policies that take into account their lower risk factors. Maybe we should tie premiums to one’s health habits. There are countless ways to insert free-market forces, what some call the invisible hand, which would restore price signals and reintroduce the laws of supply and demand into health care. Doing this would significantly reduce the cost of health care and put more money in Americans’ wallets.
As history shows, when the masses think the system is rigged, they almost always reach a breaking point and demand revolution.
When the drive-thru lines at Starbucks are ten cars deep to buy $6 cups of coffee, there is no affordability crisis. And for goodness sakes, prepare and cook real food at home.
“The solution is putting Americans, not government, at the center of the health care decision-making process via programs like health ownership accounts, direct primary agreements, and many more consumer-driven ideas.”
Medical providers are the most arrogant people on two legs.
“Perhaps we should allow people who are young and healthy to purchase policies that take into account their lower risk factors.”
The exchange premium rating groups are by area and age bracket.
In the 19th Century, building societies were founded in Britain.
You would deposit money for a few years to establish you could handle money. The building society would then probably grant you a mortgage if you asked. The process worked for about a century. Great Britain became the best housed country on the planet.
The US copied these institutions, and they were called savings and loans. The US became the best housed country on the planet.
The S&Ls went under when interest rates rose.
The formula of lend at 6% [for up to 30 years], pay depositors 3% [for a few years] and hit the golf course at 3pm failed when inflation shot up under Nixon and Carter. I got 12% on my money in 1982.
Allowing S&Ls to try to offset the negative cash flow by investing in office buildings ran into problems.
Everything the government "helps" us with outpaces inflation. The institutions in whatever industry the govt "helps" us with always artificially raise their prices to absorb as much of the govt "help" money as they can.
Get the govt out of healthcare and the prices will go down.
This. We have an accountability crisis. I know a young couple who spend $2500 a month on food for the two of them. They buy lunches every day, do door dash multiple times a week, get coffee every morning, etc. New cell phones every year, multiple streaming subscriptions, latest electronics, designer pets. And yes, they’re whining about not being able to buy a house and about having to repay student loans. A lot of people have conflated their wants with their needs.
Many of the drugs advertised on TV cost about as much in a year as a new car.
If you can only pay $450/month in premiums, you’re not generally going to get coverage in a free market.
People were once placed in policy groups. Over time, some people got sick. Premiums rose for their policy group.
Healthy people could switch to a new, lower cost/lower premium group. Unhealthy people couldn’t.
She's not looking for a new line of work. She claims the Beltway bureaucrats have a plan to un-do Trumps cuts.
Every solution to affordability starts with “Get The Illegals Out”. Generally, step 2 for each solution is “Get The Government Out Of the Solution Business”. Step 3 - stop trying to solve each problem in a vacuum.
No! Not “housing supply” leading to more building.
Mass deportations will free up plenty of housing. Without mass deportations, we’ll never make up all the lost working-man wages we’ve destroyed over the last 40 years.
“Clearly, the U.S. housing market is suffering from a supply shortage.”
“Vacant 14003818”
https://data.census.gov/table?q=vacant
Only two kinds of new builds going up in my neck of the woods...
Sec 8 and McMansions.
Builders and bureaucrats love McMansions, but they are not what I call affordable housing.
And because of the above, even the wrecks in my neck of the woods are insanely overpriced.
I call that an affordability crisis.
Few people would choose to live in Utica, NY or Duluth, MN if Santa Barbara, California was affordable to them.
“Sec 8 and McMansions”
Rich & Poor
That’s a very typical city mix.
I remember my mother driving me to college down City Line Avenue. One side had junky Philadelphia houses and the other side was Main Line stone houses.
Agree. What I see is people desiring luxury and complaining about the price.
2 different jurisdictions ... Philly and montco...
“And because of the above, even the wrecks in my neck of the woods are insanely overpriced.”
I live on a 5/8th acre lot on the Intercoastal side of US41.
Nothing government is likely going to do is going to increase the supply of large lot housing in the area.
Florida law allows developers to line US41 with dense three-story housing, but no housing blocks are going in.
Only the large investment companies that can self-insure are going to want to buy such housing blocks, and selling reinsurance would probably be easier and more profitable.
And I would shy away from buying in a new housing block because pricing for condos in housing blocks is ultimately constrained by construction costs. Most of the male invaders that have come to do honest work have come to do construction.
Also, insurance purchase for housing blocks is essential given the number of Section 8 tenants. The insurance situation in Florida is a mess.
“King Salman International Airport (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)....covers roughly 57 square kilometers....Around 12 square kilometers have already been reserved for residential construction”
“Al Maktoum International Airport (Dubai World Central), Dubai, UAE....The large-scale Dubai South development program envisions an integrated city with a population of more than one million people that will include housing, business clusters, logistics zones, and technology parks....average annual housing price growth in Dubai South is expected to reach 15 to 20 percent in the coming years.”
“New Manila International Airport (Bulacan) is being built as a key element of the Philippine government’s long-term strategy to relieve the capital region and create a new transport and economic center north of Manila.”
“The project includes the creation of an “aerotropolis” that will function as a full-scale urban cluster around the airport with office centers, technology parks, hotels, and residential districts.”
https://realting.com/news/new-airports-that-will-affect-housing-markets
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