Economic Security Project

“It’s typically not a goal of policymakers to pass on mortgage debt to a borrowers’ children.” — Michael Konczal on the 50-year mortgage in The Associated Press https://lnkd.in/gDgNsffR

On CNBC's Squawk Box, ESP Board Chair and Co-founder Chris Hughes describes the industrial policy we need: “Give an institution a clear mission, and work with Congress to streamline that, rather than just do one deal here or there because your buddy called you up.”

Thank you, Natalie Foster, for a decade of bold leadership and vision. Your work has shaped a movement and a stronger Economic Security Project for years to come.

The votes are in and the result is clear: it’s time to make life affordable for everyone. From New York to Virginia, voters elected leaders who took the rising cost of living seriously and offered concrete solutions rooted in the realities of their communities. 🏙️ In New York, Zohran Mamdani put forth bold, tangible ideas like public grocery stores and free, reliable public transit to make urban life for New Yorkers work. 🌄 In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger focused on tackling rising healthcare, housing, and energy costs, especially in the wake of cuts to the federal government that have driven up costs for Virginia families. 💡 With energy costs rising by nearly 20% in New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill pledged to freeze utility rates and hold corporations accountable for these price hikes that are squeezing working families. Affordability looks different in every city and state. But last night’s results show that people want leaders who talked about the economy not in abstract terms, but through the price of rent, the cost of commuting to work, or the strain of a grocery bill. Now comes the hard part: turning that optimism and energy into policy solutions that lower costs, steady family budgets, and make it possible for everyone to live a good life. We’re excited to see what comes next! ✨

Childcare is a key driver of the affordability crisis squeezing families nationwide. But New York has shown what progress can look like—making 3-K and pre-K available to families. The new #2CareForAll Blueprint from New Yorkers United for Child Care and United Neighborhood Houses lays out a roadmap to make universal, public childcare a reality—so every parent can afford to work, care for their kids, and stay rooted in their community. This is the kind of bold, public vision we need to make care accessible and affordable for all. https://lnkd.in/enUxsMqq

💬 In a New York Times op-ed, ESP President Natalie Foster called out Congressional Republicans’ healthcare plan for what it is: a raw deal for Gen Z and working Americans. And it struck a chord with readers who responded with their own heart-wrenching stories of dealing with a broken, unaffordable healthcare system—and their fears about how much worse it could soon get. When healthcare becomes a luxury instead of a right, young people are forced to choose between paying double or going without. It doesn’t have to be this way. 🗞️ Read letter to the editor responding to Natalie’s op-ed in The New York Times and scroll to learn more about people’s experiences: https://lnkd.in/g2pESwWM

Most people are not judging the state of the economy by GDP—they’re judging it by the cost of their weekly groceries. Or their rent. Or their childcare costs. Or the medical bills piling up on the kitchen counter. By traditional standards, the economy looks strong, with steady growth, cooling inflation, and low unemployment, but that doesn’t reflect what people are experiencing across the country. That disconnect isn’t imagined. It’s distinctive of the affordability crisis. Unaffordability is the missing link between how the economy performs on paper and people’s lived experience. It explains why a young adult with a steady job still can’t afford to live without roommates, why parents find childcare so expensive that it’s cheaper for one of them to stay home, and why a retiree who saved for decades needs a part-time job to keep up with the rising cost of living. Today, we’re releasing the Affordability Framework—authored by Michael Konczal, ESP’s Senior Director of Policy and Research, and Becky Chao, Director of Policy and Research—to help make sense of this reality and chart a different path forward. Too often, conversations about why the economy isn’t working for most Americans happen in silos, divided by sector, school of thought, or partisan lines. The Affordability Framework zooms out to reveal the common drivers of unaffordability across markets and industries. By identifying what’s driving unaffordability across the board, policymakers and advocates can better understand why life has become so expensive in the first place, and more strategically assess and build solutions for how to fix it. Our framework identifies two core drivers of today’s affordability crisis:
 💥 Broken markets: System failures—like gatekeepers that restrict market supply, corporate consolidation of market power, weak governance, and price manipulation— that drive costs up and keep basic out of reach. 💸 Broken incomes: Even if markets were fixed tomorrow, inequality, life-cycle mismatches, and macroeconomic trends like recessions mean people’s paychecks still wouldn’t keep up with the high cost of living. Fixing one without the other will not solve America’s affordability problem. Healthy markets mean little if incomes can’t keep up, and higher paychecks won’t stretch far in markets rigged to keep prices high. Taken together, these forces explain why so many parts of the economy feel broken—and why understanding both is essential to designing solutions that can build real economic security for all families. 📘 Read the Affordability Framework and share it with your networks → https://lnkd.in/gUubt7rB

What a week for AI safety in California 🎉 #SB53 became the nation’s first law requiring transparency and accountability from major AI developers —and everyone is talking about it! The landmark law puts public safety first by: ✅ Mandating disclosure of safety protocols ✅ Requiring reporting of critical safety incidents to the state ✅ Protecting whistleblowers who speak up It also establishes #CalCompute, a public cloud computing infrastructure that democratizes access, ensuring AI breakthroughs serve the public good, not just big corporations. 👏 #AISafety #AITransparency #PublicGood #SB53