Cost

Who Can't Afford Food?

Plus: Iran deal, J.D. Vance on morality, L.A. hemorrhages population, and more...

Liz Wolfe | 6.18.2026 9:30 AM

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(Illustration: Adani Samat/Envato)

What affordability discourse gets wrong: "Nearly half of U.S. families couldn't afford basic necessities in 2024, report finds," reads an NPR headline from last week. "Half of Americans can't afford to dine out or vacation in a cost of living crisis," reads a Fortune headline from a few months ago. Meanwhile, Axios reports that "sewer socialism" is catching on across the country, describing it as an approach that "focuses on expanding government programs for the public good, like affordable housing, child care and public transportation."

Technically, "sewer socialism" is a very old term that's just being co-opted now to refer more vaguely to an almost New Deal sensibility: a "universal everything," as opposed to means-tested social safety net preference. ("Sewer socialism" has historically referred to the good governance of the nitty-gritty unsexy things that cities provide: sanitation (thus the name), public housing, utilities, and streets.) But it's true that something is afoot, related to both cost of living and quality of life—especially in urban areas—and that the policy discourse muddies a few issues by jumbling them together. Call it what you want.

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"It's like, yeah, good job reading the polls that tell you that affordability is the number one issue. Do you understand why that is the case? It's because people can't f--king afford to eat, so of course that's their main issue," Democratic strategist Jesse Lehrich told Axios. This argument crops up over and over again—that a substantial portion of Americans can't afford essentials—and is increasingly used to justify all manner of state intervention. But is it at all true?

"A real but small share of Americans are in genuinely miserable financial situations. They have more bills than they can pay. They are one missed paycheck from eviction. They frequently have literally zero........

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