Much of the unrest in the United States stems from unaffordability. Across every political contest from California to the East Coast, the affordability playbook is the same: “the cost of living is too high, and the opposition party is to blame.” The first part of this message ought to be beyond serious debate. The cost of housing, the biggest single expense most families face, has skyrocketed in recent decades. The median home price is now five times the median household income, double the ratio of home prices to household income in the 1980s. But the second part of this message is objectively false, because to the extent that a painfully escalated cost of living isn’t the result of bipartisan mistakes, it can be laid at the feet of progressives. Nowhere is this more evident than in expensive California, where progressives have wielded absolute power for a generation.
This is because in California, one political party completely dominates politics, and that party is funded and directed by a coalition of special interests that are all united by a single principle: the more scarcity exists, the more we thrive. Understanding the composition and unifying principles of this coalition offers valuable insight into what actually drives the progressive economic agenda, as opposed to its rhetoric.
Read Full Article: https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/14/the-special-interest-coalition-that-thrives-on-scarcity/
