Outside the Box
Costs for the ‘Unaffordability Five’ — housing, food, healthcare, child care and energy — were rising long before Trump’s trade war
Last Updated: Dec. 4, 2025 at 2:31 p.m. ET
First Published: Dec. 4, 2025 at 8:25 a.m. ET
Affordability has become the new national anxiety. From New York City’s recent mayoral election to sagging sales at major retailers, Americans across the political spectrum are confronting the same reality: The price of everyday life is rising faster than the ability to pay for it. President Donald Trump this week called affordability a “con job.” However, no politician can wave this away as a “hoax.” The sticker shock at the grocery store and in the rent bill is real — and Americans feel it every day.
Some critics want to pin this crisis on Trump’s tariffs. But that argument crumbles the moment you look at the data. Tariffs simply are not the cause of what’s making life unaffordable. The real drivers are domestic structural problems that took root long before any tariff increases — and they lie at the center of America’s economic model.
