The 2024 presidential election ushered in an extreme shift in political winds to an unanticipated degree. In the White House, the President issued a barrage of executive orders to dismantle economic regulation. His adviser, Elon Musk, unnerved workers by slamming Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. Meanwhile, the Republican majority in Congress pushed for deep cuts to social safety nets to pay for tax cuts for high earners.

This all unfolded against the backdrop of one highly inconvenient political fact, which is that at least half of American households today do not have enough money to live on. And this does not count small luxuries like streaming, high-speed internet, or eating out. On the contrary, these tens of millions of families cannot even pay for bare necessities, like food, housing, clothing, transportation, childcare, healthcare, and taxes. They live in constant financial worry and want.

In my book, Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All, I argue that this problem has grown worse as the financial risks on families have mounted over time. In the past fifty years, governments and businesses have increasingly shed financial........

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