A collaboration between Lewis McLain & AI
I find it easy, given my own anti-socialist and anti-communist persuasion, to dismiss the recent New York City election as another swing toward unsustainable government expansion. Yet, setting that aside for a moment, can I look at the undercurrents and learn something? It is with that tone that I ask the reader to do the same.
1. Beneath the Headlines
The surface story was political: a progressive candidate, Zohran Mamdani, wins the mayor’s office on a platform of rent freezes and expanded public services. The deeper story, however, may have little to do with ideology and everything to do with survival.
By mid-2025, Manhattan’s median rent had climbed above $5,000. Outer-borough rents rose by double digits. Nearly one-third of New York households spent more than 30 % of their income on housing. Real wages, adjusted for inflation, stagnated. Even a two-income household found itself slipping behind.
So, when voters filled out their ballots, were they embracing socialism—or simply trying to breathe? Never underestimate the mind of one gasping for air.
2. The Language of Livability
Affordability has quietly replaced ideology as the true dividing line in American cities. Once, debates centered on party and policy; today, they revolve around whether an ordinary worker can stay in the place they serve. It’s not “left” or “right”—it’s whether the math still works.
When groceries, utilities, childcare, and transportation rise faster than wages, the question becomes practical, not philosophical: How long can I keep this up?
And while official inflation may appear calm at 2–3 %, that number hides what many households actually feel—what I call “personal inflation.” It’s the unmeasured rise in daily living costs that comes from housing, insurance, food, and utilities outpacing wages year after year. (See Appendix A.)
3. Misreading the Message
Some national voices called the election a socialist surge. Perhaps that’s a comforting narrative for those who like clean storylines. But what if it was instead a referendum on affordability itself—a protest against unlivable economics, not capitalism?
People who can no longer afford their city don’t vote for theory; they vote for relief. To interpret that desperation as a political movement risks missing the lesson entirely.
4. A Mirror for Other States
It is no secret that Texas has been one of the largest beneficiaries of the affordability exodus from both New York and California. Companies, families, and entire industries have moved to Texas in search of lower taxes, less regulation, and a livable cost structure. That success is worth celebrating—but it should also serve as a warning.
When infrastructure begins to wear out, when roads, power grids, and water systems reach their limits, and when taxes inevitably rise to repair them, the same logic that drew businesses here could just as easily justify their departure. If our cost of living rises unchecked, Texas could become tomorrow’s cautionary tale.
Economic migration obeys no loyalty. It follows cost, opportunity, and predictability.
5. The Numbers Behind the Feeling
Nationwide indicators tell the same story:
- The United States faces a housing shortfall of roughly 4.5 million homes.
- Nearly half of renters are now “cost-burdened,” spending over 30 % of income on housing.
- Real wage growth since the pandemic lags inflation by about one percentage point per year.
- In large metros, home-price-to-income ratios have hit historic highs, locking out first-time buyers.
These are not partisan statistics. They describe a system under strain. The vote in New York, then, may have been less about political faith than about financial fatigue—and compounded by the gap between official and personal inflation.
6. What a Professional Reader Might Conclude
A city—or a state—cannot sustain endless cost escalation without losing its workforce and its investors. The “affordability signal” from New York should not alarm us ideologically but alert us practically. It says: If you neglect cost control, people and capital will find somewhere else to go.
For policymakers, that means:
- Treat affordability as infrastructure—as essential to maintain as highways or water lines.
- Encourage balanced housing growth, removing unnecessary zoning friction while preserving standards.
- Manage public debt and taxation with restraint, so long-term costs don’t erode the very advantage that drew new residents and firms.
- Invest in maintenance before crisis, since deferred repairs always cost more later.
These aren’t partisan remedies; they’re managerial ones.
7. Asking Instead of Declaring
Still, the most productive posture may not be to prescribe but to ponder. What if the real issue beneath New York’s vote was not belief but endurance? What if the new political currency isn’t ideology but livability? Could affordability, quietly, be the next great civic value—the measure of whether a city still works for the people who build it?
If so, the warning is clear and shared: when living becomes unaffordable, no philosophy can hold a city together.
8. Closing Reflection
So, before we dismiss the New York outcome as a drift toward socialism, we might instead see it as a flare on the economic horizon. It reminds us that affordability—whether in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, or Dallas—is not a slogan but a threshold. Cross it, and even the most loyal residents and businesses will leave.
The lesson is not political; it is operational. Affordability is the quiet foundation on which every ideology, every enterprise, and every community must stand.
Appendix A: Personal Inflation — The Hidden Multiplier of the Affordability Crisis
Every few weeks a headline reassures us that inflation is “under control,” that the national rate has settled near 2 % or 3 %. Yet nearly everyone you meet feels poorer, not richer. The explanation is both simple and unsettling: the inflation that matters most is personal, not official.
1. The Illusion of Average
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures national averages across hundreds of goods and services. It was never designed to mirror the reality of any one household. It’s the economic equivalent of averaging the temperatures of Alaska and Arizona and calling it a mild day.
The CPI basket assigns weights based on the average U.S. household—an imaginary blend that includes homeowners, renters, retirees, students, and high earners alike. But your household’s spending profile—your personal basket—is unique. When your largest costs are housing, insurance, utilities, and groceries, the “average” CPI number becomes almost meaningless.
2. The Real Basket Most Families Carry
Consider two households:
- Household A, a retired couple with no mortgage and stable investments, spends mainly on travel, entertainment, and medical care.
- Household B, a working family renting a home, paying for childcare, commuting daily, and carrying health and auto insurance.
Both face an “official” inflation rate of 2 %, yet Household B experiences cost increases closer to 8 – 10 %. Why? Because its essentials—housing, food, energy, and insurance—rise far faster than the discretionary goods that dominate CPI weightings. Economists call this the distributional effect of inflation: the same average conceals drastically different outcomes depending on what you buy.
3. Lagged Housing, Hidden Pain
Housing is the largest single cost in most budgets, yet it enters the CPI through a lagged and diluted formula called Owner’s Equivalent Rent. The index assumes homeowners “rent to themselves” and spreads changes over twelve months, muting spikes in real rents and mortgages.
By the time the official numbers catch up, renters have already moved, landlords have already raised rates, and affordability has already deteriorated. This delay creates a comforting illusion of stability while real budgets collapse.
4. Substitution and Shrinkflation
The CPI assumes that when prices rise, consumers substitute cheaper goods—switching from steak to chicken, name brands to generics. On paper, that keeps inflation low. In reality, it disguises a decline in living quality.
Shrinkflation compounds the deception: packages get smaller, ingredients cheaper, and value erodes while prices stay “flat.” Statistically, that looks stable. To families, it feels like theft by a thousand cuts.
5. The Arithmetic of Erosion
Even modest inflation compounds powerfully. A 4 % annual rise in essential costs over five years represents a 22 % real loss in purchasing power. If wages rise only 2 %, the gap widens relentlessly. The result is what we now see in every major city: households squeezed not by recession but by attrition—the slow bleed of paychecks that never quite stretch to the end of the month.
This is why polls show that even as official inflation cools, more than 70 % of Americans still feel the cost of living is worsening. Their perception is mathematically valid: their personal inflation truly is higher.
6. The Broader Consequence
When policymakers rely solely on headline inflation, they misread the economy’s pressure points. The data may suggest calm while households experience crisis. That false sense of stability delays corrective policy and allows affordability to deteriorate invisibly until it erupts as political unrest or migration.
This is the quiet multiplier behind the affordability crisis. Personal inflation erodes stability one paycheck at a time, magnifying every other vulnerability—housing shortages, wage stagnation, and public frustration. By the time the official metrics confirm distress, the damage is already systemic.
7. Texas and the Next Test
Texas currently enjoys the reputation of affordability that New York and California have lost. But the same arithmetic applies. Housing in major Texas metros has risen more than 40 % since 2019, property taxes are climbing faster than wages, and infrastructure maintenance is overdue. If local cost pressures continue unchecked, the same personal inflation that hollowed out coastal states could quietly take root here as well.
Economic migration follows cost mathematics, not state pride.
8. The Real Lesson
Maybe the story of the 2020s isn’t about whether the Federal Reserve hits its 2 % target, but about whether ordinary citizens can still afford to live with dignity. The charts may show victory, yet the grocery carts tell another story. Personal inflation—unseen, unmeasured, but deeply felt—is how an affordability problem becomes a societal one.
Until policymakers, employers, and communities account for this hidden inflation, they will continue to mistake quiet erosion for progress. Affordability will keep slipping, not because prices explode, but because the numbers that define “normal” no longer describe reality.
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