By Frank F Islam & Ed Crego, August 4th, 2026 (Image credits: Tom de Boor/JNCGPT56)

Affordability. It is a problem today for tens of millions of Americans.

Gallup’s annual Economic and Personal Finance Survey revealed that 31% of respondents cited issues related to affordability as the most important financial problem confronting them in these times. In her story on the survey’s findings, Lydia Saad states:

Overall, affordability concerns dominate this year’s list, with combined mentions of inflation, energy, housing and healthcare costs — along with college expenses, transportation costs and childcare — far exceeding all other types of financial concerns.

She adds that another major concern is “insufficient income,” due to “lack of money or low wages,” and “unemployment or job loss.”

Possibly the most significant finding from this year’s survey is that a record “55% say their finances are getting worse.”

Given these results, the question becomes who or what is accountable for this extremely problematic affordability condition. There is no simple answer.

In these politically charged times, the recent finger-pointing for lack of affordability has been at Donald Trump and the on-again, off-again war in Iran, which has caused prices of goods and services to go up. There’s no question that that the Iran war has increased costs and added to the current affordability problem.

What’s ironic is that affordability was one of the major themes of Trump’s campaign for re-election in 2024. He frequently said things to underscore his commitment, such as “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again. We’ll do that. We’ve got to bring it down.”

As he does so often, when it comes to affordability, Trump contradicts or countermands himself. In May, when he was asked about the impact of the Iran war on the American economy, Trump replied, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.” In June, after he was asked about inflation going up, he declared, “You know what I really love. I love the inflation.”

That’s not good news for the American public, because it is obvious their concerns are not on his mind. It’s unlikely he will do much to turn things around. And unfortunately for them, even if Trump were to step up to the plate on their behalf, there are many things that would have to be addressed to reverse our present direction on affordability.

The Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute provide excellent data and insights on who is impacted by the lack of affordability in our country and the reasons for the decline in what we can afford.

Many think affordability is only a problem for those living in poverty. This is absolutely not the case.

In their research article that the Brookings Institution published in December 2025, Hannah Stephens and Andre M. Perry highlight the following, regarding “the middle class struggles” in terms of affordability:

• The nation’s affordability crisis has not spared middle-class families, one-third of which struggle to afford basic necessities such as food, housing, and child care.
• Across the 160 U.S. metro areas studied, at least 20% of middle-class earners cannot afford to live in that place, after adjusting for local income ranges and price variations.
• The share of struggling middle-class families varies by race: 27% of white families, 39% of Black families, 41% of Asian American families, 46% of Native American families, and 50% of Latino or Hispanic families are unable to afford basic necessities.

The Urban Institute American Affordability Tracker “… monitors trends in housing, health care, child care, energy, gas, and other essential expenses, alongside earnings and indicators of financial distress.”

Key takeaways from the most recent Tracker published in April include the following:

• Nearly half of people in American families cannot afford the true cost of living. Urban research finds 49% of people in American families don’t have the resources to cover essential expenses to live securely in their community.
• The cost of essential goods and services is rising faster than earnings. Since 2017, average earnings have grown about 43 percent nationwide. Over the same period, home sale prices have increased 81 percent and rents 54 percent. The lowest-cost Silver health plan on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace has risen 77 percent, and child care costs have grown dramatically.
• Rising everyday expenses, including energy and transportation, are adding new pressures on households. Residential electricity costs have increased faster than earnings across much of the country, leaving customers paying about $40 more in December 2025 on average than they did in December 2017. Gas prices have also risen sharply, with the national average growing by $1.00 per gallon since late February 2026.

This affordability data is distressing. Even more distressing is that affordability is not a recent problem.

Hannah Stephens and her Brookings colleagues point this out in their May research article, which examines the state of affordability in states across the nation writing:

While news headlines about affordability are a more recent phenomenon, we find that the gap between income and cost of living has been a persistent challenge for U.S. households in all states over the past decade. In nearly every year from 2014 to 2024, more than 40% of American households have struggled to make ends meet. The only exception over this period was during the COVID-19 pandemic recovery in 2021 and 2022, when federal stimulus checks and expanded tax credits provided a significant but temporary boost to post-tax incomes.

Sum it up and a significant percentage of the American people have been — and are — suffering today because of the dramatic rise of costs in areas such as housing, health care, child care, food, and energy in comparison to their shrinking incomes and potential for upward mobility. Wages have not kept up with costs, and many organizations have eliminated jobs that enabled employees to move up the employment ladder.

The Urban Institute has developed governmental policy solutions to address our nation’s affordability problem, and Brookings has presented some recommendations and will provide more in future articles. Federal, state, and local governments definitely have a role to play in confronting the various reasons for affordability.

Government intervention by itself, however, will be insufficient for the scope and nature of this problem. As the foregoing analysis documents, there are many actors accountable for the emergence and growth of the “affordability crisis.” They include organizations of all types, which provide health care, housing, child care, food, and other essential goods and services.

Many of those organizations have significantly increased the emphasis they put on rewarding those at the top and their investors, and reduced the emphasis placed on the needs of their customers, as well as mid-level and working-class employees.

We have written in our books and blogs that inequality in America has been growing substantially for decades. Those organizations who have been, and are, accountable today for that redirection will have to modify their practices and priorities for there to be meaningful progress in adequately addressing the affordability issue.

That said, affordability has become a hot political topic and talking point in this election year. Time will tell whether campaign promises can be translated into reality in order to make a contribution to resolving this problem for everyday Americans.

It is essential for this to be done. The United States of America is at a pivot point today. We are going to be a nation for the wealthy and the few or a nation of equality and opportunity for the many.

Louis Brandeis, a Supreme Court associate justice from 1916 to 1939, stated as much when he presciently observed, “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

On January 6, 1941, in his famous Four Freedoms speech delivered to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said:

For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.

Jobs for those who can work.

Security for those who need it.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

These are the simple, basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.

In 2026, we must learn from Justice Brandeis and President Roosevelt: affordability is not just an economic issue, it is an issue for the future of our democratic republic. We must ensure that those who are accountable for creating this dilemma are held accountable.

If we do not, the price will be paid not only by those who are suffering today but by all of us who believe in America and the founding principles and enduring values of our democracy.