Making Life More Affordable Is The Only Important Issue For 2026

Between 1950 and 1980 things were pretty good in the U.S. economy. Unions were strong and rising productivity was shared among all economic classes. Families could live pretty good on just one income.

But that is no longer true. Since 1980, the economic playing field was tilted to benefit the rich - at the expense of everyone else. Republicans seized enough power to institute their economic policy - the idea that giving more to the rich would benefit everybody, because the rich would let much of their new found wealth trickle down to everyone else.

It didn't happen. The rich hogged that wealth, and since 1980 have kept most of the rising productivity for themselves. The result was that the incomes of the rich rose by about 300%, while wages were stagnant for others. The middle class barely stayed ahead of inflation, and the working class and the poor lost ground.

Currently, about half of American households are only a paycheck or two away from falling into poverty - and most households need two paychecks to stay afloat. And our once thriving middle class is shrinking.

The sad fact is that far too many people are finding they can no longer afford a decent life in the United States. The United States remains the richest nation in the world, but too much of its wealth is now held by the rich, while the bottom 80-90% is left to share an ever smaller portion of the economic pie.

A significant portion of the working and middle classes believed Donald Trump when he said he would lower prices and raise wages, so they voted for him in 2024. But he betrayed them. He continued the GOP policy of giving more to the rich, and then made it even worse by instituting tariffs that made inflation rise faster than necessary, while doing nothing to raise wages. The working and middle classes are worse off than ever and the poor continue to suffer.

Someone needs to do something to make life affordable again to the whole U.S. population. 

The Democrats have some good ideas about how to do that. The want to raise the minimum wage (putting upward pressure on all wages), strengthen unions and make them easier to create and join, fully fund Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, help families pay for child care, make both college and technical schools more affordable, and increase taxes on the rich while lowering them for the working and middle classes. 

Those things would be a good start to making life more affordable in this country. But sadly, too many Democrats seem side-tracked by other issues. They need to realize that there is only one real issue in the coming midterm elections - making life more affordable for all Americans.

The party that convinces voters they can make life more affordable will win in 2026