The Man-Made Affordability Crisis

Originally published on Substack. 

Americans do not need another speech about affordability. They need policymakers to stop making life more expensive.

Families feel the pressure everywhere: at the gas pump, the grocery store, the doctor’s office, the insurance bill, the rent payment, the mortgage statement, and the credit card balance.

These are not isolated frustrations. They are the result of years of government spending too much, inflating too much, regulating too much, subsidizing too much, and blocking too much of the supply families need.

That is why I call this what it is: a man-made affordability crisis.

Markets did not fail families. Policy failed families!

Families Feel It First

The latest Consumer Price Index report shows prices rose 3.8 percent over the last year in April, with the monthly CPI up 0.6 percent after rising 0.9 percent in March. Energy rose 3.8 percent in April and accounted for more than 40 percent of the monthly increase. Gasoline rose 5.4 percent in April and was up 28.4 percent over the year. Food rose 3.2 percent over the year, shelter rose 3.3 percent, and electricity rose 6.1 percent.

Those numbers are not just data points. They are family budgets breaking under the weight of bad policy.

The national AAA gas price average was $4.515 per gallon on May 18. For families commuting to work, hauling kids to activities, or operating small businesses, that is not a minor annoyance. It is a direct tax on mobility, work, and opportunity.

Inflation Is Policy

Some price spikes come from shocks. The latest energy surge has a clear global component. The Energy Information Administration expects Brent crude oil prices to fall later this year as Middle East production rises, but the May outlook still projects $95 per barrel Brent in 2026 and average U.S. retail gasoline of $3.88 per gallon.

That matters. A geopolitical shock can raise oil prices. A refinery disruption can raise fuel prices. A drought can raise food prices. Those are real.

But persistent inflation is not an act of God. It is the consequence of too much money chasing too few goods and services, driven by loose monetary, fiscal, and regulatory failures.

Supply Still Matters

If policymakers learn only one lesson from the current energy spike, it should be this: supply matters.

Energy prices rise when global supply becomes uncertain. Housing prices rise when zoning, permitting, and land-use rules block construction. Health care prices rise when third-party payment, mandates, and federal distortions separate patients from prices. Food prices rise when energy, labor, transportation, and compliance costs rise.

This is not complicated. It is Econ 101.

If you restrict supply while subsidizing demand, prices go up. If you make production harder while handing out checks, prices go up. If you regulate, delay, mandate, and sue away the ability to build, drill, refine, treat, transport, insure, and compete, prices go up.

Then politicians act surprised when families cannot afford the result.

Government Keeps Adding Costs

Too much of today’s affordability agenda is backwards.

Price controls do not create more supply. They create shortages and distortions.

Gas-tax holidays do not create more gasoline. They are political theater, like sales-tax holidays, temporary payroll-tax cuts, homestead exemptions, and other carveouts that make the tax code more complicated while avoiding the real problem.

Tariffs do not make families richer. They raise prices by taxing imports and reducing competition.

Subsidies do not make goods magically cheaper. They shift costs to taxpayers, hide prices, and often bid up demand in already-constrained markets.

Regulations do not become free just because politicians say they serve a good purpose. Compliance costs flow through to families in higher prices, fewer choices, and lower wages.

That is the unseen cost. Bastiat would recognize it immediately: the store that was never opened, the home that was never built, the doctor who quit, the small business that never hired, and the family that never got ahead.

Debt Is Eating The Future

The federal budget makes this worse.

The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.9 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2026, rising to $3.1 trillion by 2036. Debt held by the public is projected to reach 120 percent of GDP by 2036, and rising net interest costs drive much of the worsening outlook.

That is not sustainable. It is also not compassionate.

Every dollar government borrows must eventually be paid through taxes, inflation, reduced private investment, or slower growth. Excessive spending today becomes an affordability problem tomorrow. Families may not see “federal deficit” on their grocery receipt, but they feel the consequences through higher prices, higher interest rates, weaker wage growth, and fewer opportunities.

Washington has spent years pretending it can avoid tradeoffs. It cannot. The tradeoffs just show up later, and families usually pay first.

The Wrong Fixes

The wrong response is more government management.

Do not cap prices.

Do not punish profits.

Do not impose windfall taxes.

Do not subsidize demand into constrained supply.

Do not keep narrowing tax bases with carveouts.

Do not claim tariffs are pro-worker when they raise families’ costs.

Do not pretend that more debt is free.

These policies may sound compassionate, patriotic, or populist. Too much government has made life less affordable.

Freedom Fixes Affordability

The better path is not mysterious. It is just politically harder.

Start with spending restraint. Federal, state, and local governments should limit spending growth to no more than population growth plus inflation, and ideally less. If government stops growing faster than taxpayers’ ability to pay, the pressure for higher taxes, more debt, and inflationary finance falls.

Then remove barriers to supply. Let builders build homes. Let energy producers produce. Let doctors and patients contract directly. Let entrepreneurs compete. Let workers keep more of what they earn. Let prices signal scarcity instead of letting politicians pretend scarcity does not exist.

A serious affordability agenda should include:

More energy abundance.

More housing supply.

More health care competition.

Lower and flatter taxes.

Less regulation.

Less spending.

Sound money.

Fewer subsidies and carveouts.

More trust in people.

That is how you lower costs without destroying the market process that creates abundance in the first place.

Three Takeaways for Policymakers

1. Affordability starts with spending restraint.

Government spending is the root disease behind higher taxes, debt, inflation pressure, and fiscal fragility. If lawmakers do not control spending, families will keep paying through higher costs.

2. Supply-side freedom lowers prices.

More energy, housing, health care competition, and entrepreneurship will do more for affordability than price controls, subsidies, tariffs, or temporary tax gimmicks.

3. Stop hiding the cost of government.

Debt, inflation, mandates, regulations, and carveouts let politicians shift costs instead of reducing them. Families need honest prices, lower burdens, and more choices.

The Bottom Line

The affordability crisis is man-made.

That means it can be fixed.

But not by politicians pretending they can manage prices, subsidize scarcity, or borrow without consequences. It will be fixed when the government spends less, regulates less, taxes less, and stops blocking the supply families need.

Affordability will not come from more central planning. It will come from abundance, discipline, and freedom.

Thank you for reading and for sharing my work. If this added value to your week, please pass it along to a policymaker, staffer, journalist, or friend who should read it. Through Ginn Economic Consulting, I’m glad to help policymakers and organizations think through spending restraint, tax reform, energy abundance, health care competition, and pro-growth policies that let people prosper.