The Undeniable Affordability Crisis
I’ve written a lot about “inequality,” what is arguably America’s biggest problem, but it wouldn’t be so problematic if the people at the bottom of the income scale could afford to live a comfortable middle-class life and still had a fair shot at achieving the “American dream.” I wouldn’t care how many new billionaires had been created during the Trump era, this new “gilded age” we’re living in, if it weren’t so obviously at the expense of working people.
Trump and the Republicans in Congress promised that the 2017 tax cut would generate economic benefits for everyone, but surprise surprise, that didn’t happen. Companies didn’t spend the windfall on employee salaries as the bill’s supporters claimed they would. No, for the most part they kept it for themselves in the form of profits and stock buybacks, what became a boon for executives and shareholders. As a result (per the Brookings Institution), of the estimated $2 trillion in savings that taxpayers will gain in a decade, more than a third will go to the richest 1% of Americans. But guess what, in the meantime employee salaries failed to keep up with inflation.
When there is so much inequality, logic tells us it’s hard to avoid an affordability crisis for the majority of people, let alone those on the bottom half of the income scale. Inequality can be an abstract concept, but affordability is most certainly not, at least not when you’re living it.
Too Many Americans Can No Longer Afford to Live!
Please bear with me while I belabor the point. . . Too many people wouldn’t be able to afford groceries without food stamps (SNAP) and the help of school lunches for their kids. . . People’s quality of life suffers when they can’t afford the healthcare they need (despite Medicaid), and many face bankruptcy if a major medical expense arises. . . Utilities cost so much that people are sometimes forced to choose between the electricity being shut off and going without their prescription medication. . . They can’t afford transportation because the average price of a new car is now $50k, while the cost of insurance and repairs have risen dramatically. . . Housing is increasingly unaffordable; too many people are homeless (including children) or on the brink, while even those without fear of eviction have no means to buy a house and build the equity that could become their retirement savings (The median age of homebuyers today is 59; for first-time buyers it’s 40!). . . And since many jobs don’t pay enough to cover the cost of childcare, some people can’t even afford to work, creating a terrible predicament.
This is All Totally, Overwhelmingly Unacceptable!
This laundry list from hell is simply to make the point of how many expenses are necessary to maintain what most of us would consider a decent, middle-class lifestyle. When the President calls “affordability” a “hoax,” he’s revealing his ignorance of what it takes to survive in today’s America. President Trump even had the audacity to suggest that banks should offer 50-year mortgages, never mind if payments will extend well beyond the buyer’s lifespan. That’s what Trump and his billionaire cronies want—for the vast majority of Americans to be desperate hamsters stuck on a hopeless treadmill their entire life.
Trump Says He “Won Affordability.” Too Bad the Rest of Us Haven’t.
In truth, everything’s too expensive for people whose income isn’t enough to cover life’s necessities. (What among the list above is a luxury, except maybe that $50k car?) There simply aren’t enough jobs (even with two-income families and three-job workers) that pay enough to cover everything on that list. The combination of globalization, technology and automation decimated high-paying factory jobs in recent decades, and now it looks like AI may be coming for white-collar jobs as well. The so-called “gig economy” might work for some people, but for the majority it’s just a temporary fix without the benefits and security people need. If you want to know why people aren’t starting families, just take a look around. If people have no job security and can barely keep their heads above water (assuming they aren’t hit with an unforeseen expense), how can they be expected to plan for the future?
The top .01% have taken so much for themselves, hogged so much of what’s on the Monopoly board, that most of us can’t even afford to play the game any longer. Such is the final result of the “affordability problem” that President Trump finds so amusing.
