HomeMy WebLinkAbout013026 email Fwd_ The Affordability Crisis Is Older Than You ThinkALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Sharing an excellent briefing document—
rural communities hurting the most as increased elected officials - state and national- come from an urban not a rural perspective
the dramatic change in data significantly changes the challenges from how they were 5-10 years ago
local analysis needs to be smart about national networks- charging more- charging double- charging enough to eliminate access to orchestrated data
good gime to pull together the varied sectors of our community - have them share data— so we all understand where hte barriers and opportunities exist
Thanks for being smart!- for working hard! - and challenge us to work together. .. ..
please trust in community willingness experitse, and caring to know/ learn more about our the problems are deffiniations of success and what local communities can do together
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Zach Silk " <civicventures@substack.com>
Subject: The Affordability Crisis Is Older Than You Think
Date: January 29, 2026 at 3:44:20 PM PST
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The Pitch: Economic Update for January 29th, 2026
ZACH SILK <https://substack.com/@civicventures>
JAN 29
<https://substack.com/@civicventures>
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Friends,
Working Americans know that prices are rising. From trips to the grocery store to vacations at Disneyland, the price of virtually everything has noticeably increased since 2020. But
when you look a little deeper at the cost of living, you start to understand that America’s affordability crisis has been growing for decades.
Despite President Trump’s claims on Tuesday <https://substack.com/redirect/a2894acc-0dc3-447d-85c7-15d3fd43739d?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> that
the American people “don’t mention affordability anymore” as one of their leading problems, a New York Times <https://substack.com/redirect/18acd83e-bfea-41fc-9154-edebb4dbd67a?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.
igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> poll released on the same day found that “Two-thirds of voters said they now think a middle-class lifestyle is out of reach for most people,
and 77 percent say it has gotten harder to achieve than a generation ago.”
One interesting takeaway from that Times polling is what Americans consider most expensive: education, housing, and health care top the list, with an outright majority of Americans declaring
education and housing to be “unaffordable,” and roughly half saying the same about health care.
<https://substack.com/redirect/aea07e50-b08f-4f9c-9f0a-ffafb412d9a6?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4>
When you combine the “unaffordable” and “somewhat affordable” categories, a sweeping majority of Americans are finding it difficult to pay for groceries, utilities, and transportation.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking statistic is that 44 percent of Americans consider “having a family” to be unaffordable, and 38 percent say that they only find it somewhat affordable.
While a lot of the affordability conversation centers around groceries—and understandably so, because food is just about the most pressing need that humans face on a daily basis—this
polling shows that the affordability crisis is about a lot more than the cost of a dozen eggs. And it’s a crisis that has been unfolding for a lot longer than most pundits claim.
Every new year, libertarian-leaning economist Mark Perry releases a chart showing price changes in US consumer goods and services since January 1st, 2000. You can see this year’s edition
of the chart below:
<https://substack.com/redirect/677b1031-51f4-4c4c-8ce0-f0bcdc679a0e?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4>
First, I want to get the ideology out of the way: Professor Perry was an ardent opponent of Seattle’s Fight for $15 and other minimum-wage increases around the country. That’s why he
includes “average hourly wages” as a category in his chart. It’s the pinnacle of trickle-down thinking to perceive wages as an “expense” that drags the economy down when, in fact, we
understand that worker paychecks are what makes the economy grow for everyone.
But setting Perry’s trickle-down tendencies aside, this chart is revelatory. When you look above the cumulative 92.6% inflation line since January 1st, 2000, almost all of the highest
expenses have to do with education and childcare, healthcare, and housing. If you’re an adult in the year 2026, you are paying far more, even adjusted for inflation, for all of those
expenses than your parents and grandparents ever did.
It’s also interesting that other nations have successfully developed more robust government relationships with those three industries. We’re the only major nation without some sort of
subsidized healthcare system for all citizens. Nations like Japan and Austria <https://substack.com/redirect/d2c05bb3-a393-4990-9082-a6e179b2a395?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62m
w8dh9tCR-8W4> have established systems of affordable housing that help keep rents and mortgages in line with the salaries of working citizens. And the Nordic nations and Germany <https://substack.co
m/redirect/036a7784-1cc1-4604-bcaf-8527676761e5?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> have made free, high-quality education available to everyone who wants
it, with France and other nations supplying at least some level of affordable education for citizens.
So why has affordability tanked in the education, housing, and healthcare sectors since 2000? First, because leaders on both sides of the aisle have pursued trickle-down economic policies
of deregulation and lower taxes for corporations, allowing providers to buy up monopoly power and raise prices far above costs in order to goose their profit margins to record heights.
And second, because the inequality that started to fracture in the last two decades of the 20th century opened up into a chasm, leaving working Americans with less spending power as
the wealthy and powerful hoarded wealth at the very top. Prices rose, paychecks for working Americans shrank by some 79 trillion dollars <https://substack.com/redirect/314ae420-3140-4072-aa25-02b259
b6e45a?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> , and now the cost of just being alive as a working American is getting to be too much for a significant portion
of the population.
Because the problem has grown for so long, a vast majority of working Americans now understand that there is a problem. That means they’re going to be hungry for solutions. The good
news is that, as I noted above, plenty of other nations have solved these problems, and a growing number of people running for office understand that trickle-down is the past and growing
the paychecks of working Americans is the future. This could be the watershed moment in our decades-long affordability crisis.
The Latest Economic News and Updates
<https://substack.com/redirect/1fd3ee82-0d7f-4967-a7ed-da87571b1f0d?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4>
Consumer Confidence Plunges
“U.S. consumer confidence slumped to the lowest level in more than 11-1/2 years in January amid mounting anxiety over a sluggish labor market and high prices, which could see households
becoming more cautious about spending,” Reuters reported <https://substack.com/redirect/f425b24a-40b5-45e8-9b89-297e95a89f4d?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4>
this week.
“The surprise deterioration in confidence reported by the Conference Board on Tuesday was across political party affiliation, with survey respondents identifying as Independents the
most pessimistic,” Reuters continues.
Respondents also reported feeling pessimistic about the labor market. “The share of consumers who viewed jobs as being ‘plentiful’ dropped to 23.9%, the lowest since February 2021,
from 27.5% last month. Some 20.8% of consumers said jobs were “hard to get,” also the highest since February 2021, compared to 19.1% in December,” Reuters says.
<https://substack.com/redirect/94736c3a-2638-454c-bab3-5b6be49f9e35?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4>
Self-reporting surveys don’t always accurately depict the state of the economy, but they can affect future economic behavior—particularly in spending. “An increasing share of consumers
think there are fewer jobs available today,” economist Tim Quinlan told Reuters, adding, “That point alone isn’t enough to cause households at large to stop spending, but it does result
in some more cautious spending behavior, specifically those with less discretionary income like lower-income households.”
The Federal Reserve doesn’t seem to share the dire economic sentiments of working Americans. The day after the consumer sentiment report came out, the Fed announced that it was keeping
interest rates steady because it perceived strength in the economy.
A statement released by the Fed claimed that “Economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace,” the New York Times <https://substack.com/redirect/39691432-3075-4856-9ef8-aa9eae53d90a?j=eyJ1IjoiM
3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> reports. The Fed reported that “Job gains have remained low, and the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization.
Inflation remains somewhat elevated.”
There is a jarring disconnect between the consumer sentiment report and the Fed’s assessment of the economy. One is mildly optimistic, the other is increasingly pessimistic about the
future of the economy and the labor market.
What’s going on here? The Fed relies on trickle-down metrics to measure economic health. For instance, the stock market has proven largely resilient over the past year, driven largely
by a handful of Big Tech stocks chasing artificial intelligence with huge investments in data centers and computer chips.
But that view from the corner office doesn’t reflect the lived economic experiences of the people. Working Americans know that when people lose their jobs, it can take months to find
new employment, and those big raises people got when lockdowns ended in 2021 and 2022 have gone extinct. They see their grocery bills rising and other expenses like health insurance
skyrocketing, and they see a series of high-profile layoffs at companies like Amazon, Meta, and UPS. All those bad economic signals add up.
In the end, this could be another symptom of the K-shaped inequality spreading throughout our economy: While the richest 1% are reporting that happy days are here again, everyone else
is falling further behind.
US Population Growth Plummets
“The United States population grew last year at one of the slowest rates in its history,” write Jeff Adelson and Sabrina Tavernise at the New York Times <https://substack.com/redirect/5d608b2d-330b-4
26c-acf1-6d2fa00c66d7?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> .
“The immigration numbers plunged by more than 50 percent from the previous year, under the aggressive anti-immigration policies of President Trump,” they continue.
“The nation’s population increased by about 1.8 million over the year, and stood at almost 342 million on July 1,” the Times notes. “That is a growth rate of about 0.5 percent, the lowest
since 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic caused deaths to soar and borders to close, shutting the door to international migration. That year saw the slowest growth since the nation’s
founding.”
Those dwindling numbers are set to continue. If immigration keeps up its current rate while President Trump’s campaigns of forced deportations continue in states around the country,
the Times notes, immigration “will fall to about 321,000 for the year ending on June 30,” which is “lower than during the pandemic year, when net international migration dropped to
376,000, one of the lowest points in modern history.”
For the entirety of the 20th century, America’s single biggest super-power was our vast and diverse immigrant population. In a market-based economy that grows through consumer spending
like ours, a growing population supercharges the economy for everyone by adding more customers, who create more jobs with their paychecks. Immigration helped power our economy, and
those immigrants also brought new perspectives to our economy, supercharging innovation in business, science, the culinary arts, culture, and just about every other field.
Without immigration, the only way we could possibly keep the American economy roaring the way it did for much of the 20th century would be through increasing the birth rate of the people
who do live here. That’s not happening, the Times reports.
“A sharp drop in the birthrate also contributed to the slowdown in population growth,” they write. “The birthrate has been falling since the Great Recession in 2008, and new births outpaced
deaths by only about 518,000 in the latest period.”
We saw in the introduction to this newsletter why people aren’t having babies: The cost of childcare, housing, education, and healthcare have all skyrocketed since 2000, leaving most
working Americans to feel as though they simply can’t afford to have as large of a family as they’d like.
If our leaders actually cared about growing the birth rate, they’d be making massive investments in healthcare, education, housing, and childcare right now. Instead, politicians like
JD Vance just pay lip service to American families and suggest that grandparents should provide free child care <https://substack.com/redirect/da569c2b-8f0f-4bc8-bbd2-510d0bdda79f?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMi
fQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> , all while pursuing policies that penalize working Americans.
One of the most essential economic tenets is that the economy isn’t made up of stocks, or corporate profits, or even money—the economy is people. That is to say, it’s driven by the preferences
and the lived experiences of human beings. When all of your policies are centered around removing human beings from the country and extracting value from working people, you can’t be
surprised when the economy starts to send off warning signs.
The Housing Affordability Crisis Is a Rural Problem, Too
We often think of housing affordability as an urban and suburban problem. Most of the discussion about housing policies that we encounter in the media centers conversations around zoning,
public transportation, and other concepts that don’t really figure into the daily lives of Americans living far from urban areas.
That’s why I was surprised to see this chart from Heather Boushey’s excellent newsletter <https://substack.com/redirect/7f218dd7-172f-46d8-b791-d11d1e3f24c4?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFc
Fd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> that shows rural families are actually facing a larger gap between their income and homeownership than their suburban or urban counterparts. And that gap has
only grown in the last six years.
<https://substack.com/redirect/3ca0ff2f-7ac1-43f0-a664-f8582197b16b?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4>
At the end of 2019, “a homebuyer in a rural county needed <https://substack.com/redirect/297b0b74-889a-488b-9c2c-3dfc2b64ac79?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4>
an annual income of roughly $36,200 to afford a median-priced home,” Boushey writes. By the end of 2026, she says, that same family “needed over $74,500” to afford the same median
home.
Most of the policies put forth by the Trump administration will not help those rural Americans buy the home of their dreams. “President Trump’s housing plan <https://substack.com/redirect/f51b5885-c2
08-4e26-a150-2c4724e0ae3f?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> includes a 50-year <https://substack.com/redirect/847c746e-8e3b-4eb8-9707-7fed5a881aa8?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMif
Q.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> mortgage proposal” and “allows Americans to tap into 401(k)s <https://substack.com/redirect/19eb5e69-0c1d-4c62-a04a-59e026eef6d6?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.i
gcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> to make a down payment below the age requirement and without a penalty,” Boushey writes.
We’ve already written in <https://substack.com/redirect/3f1779d2-1675-4214-984e-b5bb0b95da49?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> The Pitch <https://substack.com/redirec
t/3f1779d2-1675-4214-984e-b5bb0b95da49?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> that the 50-year mortgage scheme means that homebuyers will pay much more in
interest over the life of the loan than people who have more traditional 30-year mortgages, in exchange for only slightly smaller monthly payments.
Similarly, pulling out of 401(k)s for down payments results in more long-term pain for workers who are likely already putting less away <https://substack.com/redirect/4b4a4250-7c98-4e04-8610-d43a5397
b011?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> for retirement than workers a generation before. Plus, rural workers make less than their urban counterparts, and
Boushey points out that “lower earners are far <https://substack.com/redirect/b4c13fde-d8f2-41aa-8e89-c64743aaa39c?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4>
less likely to have a 401(k). Among those that do, workers making between $100,000 and $149,999 are able to contribute nearly double <https://substack.com/redirect/6ec4bde8-4593-46e8-83c9-63e60b69c
99b?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> workers making $50,000 to $74,999.”
So what policies would help rural homebuyers achieve their dream of homeownership? A new law <https://substack.com/redirect/8f3261ec-97ee-4c46-8db8-bfabcadbb1cd?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8
KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> in New York expands the market for manufactured housing, which dramatically lowers the cost of building a house for consumers. And Washington state <https://substack.com/
redirect/e7b499c4-e719-4c40-b71a-6eaa490ff271?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> is looking into multiple policies that encourage the construction of
multi-unit housing on a single lot. And groups like the National Rural Housing Coalition <https://substack.com/redirect/013d4095-41d9-4cfd-b63e-50c62dd04ab3?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNF
cFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> have a number of policies that specifically meet the needs of rural populations seeking safe and affordable housing, either as homeowners or renters.
This Week in Trickle-Down
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The Dollars & Sense newsletter <https://substack.com/redirect/104be364-08a0-4faf-8d75-7196dace0ac5?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> warns that the
stock market isn’t just outperforming the wealth of working Americans—it’s growing bigger and faster than the whole US economy. “The Buffett Index, the ratio of the total value of stocks
in the S&P 500 to Gross Domestic Product (the value of economic output) confirms that stock market values have outstripped their economic support. The index has been well above 200%
since mid-year 2025. That’s much higher than it had been at the peak of the Dot-Com bubble in the early 2000s,” they write.
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“Trump’s first year has likely cost you thousands of dollars,” reports the Center for American Progress <https://substack.com/redirect/d8b1e1a8-2c97-427b-9130-fd04014ed0f4?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg
8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> .
This Week in Middle-Out
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A teachers’ union in New Haven, Connecticut, successfully negotiated <https://substack.com/redirect/64b041fb-d61f-4e8c-9225-7ea75389ea37?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-
8W4> a 13.5% pay increase and improved benefits for more than 1700 educators.
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A machinists’ union in Erie, Pennsylvania, ratified a substantial new contract <https://substack.com/redirect/7bbdb735-d5c2-480b-b11e-b7401a17aadc?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG6
2mw8dh9tCR-8W4> that won hundreds of members higher wages, more time off, and improvements to worker pensions. Of note, the union reinstated a so-called “Rule of 90,” which establishes
full pension benefits when the workers’ age plus their years of service on the job totals 90. Employers had previously bumped the total up to 95, pushing back pension benefits for retirement-age
workers. This is another victory in an ongoing attempt <https://substack.com/redirect/6745c219-4dc9-40ac-ac1a-4ab2517b47c1?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4>
by unions to claw back the stronger pensions that employers used to provide.
This Week on the Pitchfork Economics Podcast
Harvard Business School professor Rebecca Henderson argues that one of the biggest flaws in our current economic system is the idea that creating value for shareholders is the most important
purpose of corporations. In this week’s episode of the podcast <https://substack.com/redirect/ee982480-b1a0-4242-923a-c24242bdd9a5?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4>
, Goldy and Nick revisit their conversation with Henderson about how to build a system that works better for everyone—not just CEOs and the elite shareholder class.
Closing Thoughts
For years, the trickle-down playbook has called for leaders to slash social safety net programs like welfare, food stamps, and unemployment wherever they can. But at times when public
pushback would be too strong, trickle-downers have a lower-impact “plan B” when it comes to the social safety net: They instead add complex means-testing to the program, making it harder
for people to access the benefits.
Sometimes, means-testing requires people to fill out multiple forms to prove their worthiness for food assistance programs. Other times, it requires recipients to apply for a certain
number of jobs in order to access the unemployment benefits that they paid into in past paychecks. Trickle-downers love means-testing because they can promote the tougher accessibility
program as a way to “fight fraud,” but studies show that the more barriers you can place between a person and the social safety net, the more likely they are to give up altogether.
The end result is the same as cutting programs: Fewer people getting the help that they need.
A fantastic new report from former White House adviser Luke Farrell shows that means-testing isn’t just a sneaky way to enact cuts of the social safety net anymore: It’s also a huge
revenue source for private businesses.
“Just days after President Trump signed the Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill into law, Equifax’s CEO Mark Begor celebrated its passage on the company’s earnings call,” Farrell
begins. “The windfall he expected from the law was ‘just massive,’ but he was not celebrating the bill’s lavish corporate tax breaks <https://substack.com/redirect/5ed490ef-f65a-4bbb-94dd-556a076d98
97?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> .”
Instead, Farrell explains, Begor “was applauding new rules that will make it harder for millions of eligible Americans to receive their healthcare and food benefits – and eager for the
opportunity to profit from them.”
“Today, Equifax extracts over $800 million worth of contracts from the federal government and state governments each year. Much of that total is for access to its Workforce Solutions
product, the Work Number, which provides data on workers’ income and employment,” Farrel continues. “The Work Number’s basic business model is to purchase exclusive rights to worker
data from employers and payroll providers (often without a worker’s knowledge) and then sell that data to banks, creditors, and governments for a profit.”
You can see where this is going: “Since the United States, unlike many of our peer nations, has opted to means-test core government programs like healthcare, the government has become
a huge buyer of this income data. In order to prove that a person is eligible for Medicaid, an Affordable Care Act Marketplace subsidy, or any number of safety net programs, state governments
and federal agencies pay Equifax for data to verify that person’s income.”
Then Equifax followed the trickle-downer’s playbook, effectively buying up a monopoly into citizen data and jacking up the prices for government to access their records. “With governments
entirely reliant on Equifax to administer life-saving benefits to millions of low-income Americans, steep price hikes quickly followed. The New York Times uncovered <https://substack.com/redirect/89
7f930c-0d54-4c56-addf-9d03f552a7ea?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> that in many places, the toll paid to Equifax for the Work Number doubled, then
tripled, and more than quadrupled <https://substack.com/redirect/95b5f6fd-7350-478a-876a-c85eab801a2d?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> in only a few
years.”
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Trump’s tax bill, which passed last summer, “doubled the number of times state Medicaid agencies need to verify many individuals’ income each year, meaning doubling the number of tolls
paid to Equifax,” Farrell explains. “The law adds new requirements that a worker must verify at least 80 hours of work each month – employment data held almost exclusively by Equifax.”
Farrell points out that Equifax, flush with the promise of tens of billions of your tax dollars rushing into the coffers to means-test welfare recipients, announced a $3 billion stock
buyback scheme <https://substack.com/redirect/c0018f16-7dc8-44bf-bd61-2ba63af4a7fd?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> , transferring those outsized profits
into elite shareholder wealth.
Equifax is not the only bad actor here. Farrell also recounts the story of how government contractor Deloitte inserted itself into the Medicaid eligibility programs of 25 states, pulling
in $6 billion in tax dollars for the sole purpose of making it harder for people to access affordable medical care.
This is an important piece, and it offers several easy solutions to undo this parasite economy built on top of our social safety net. I hope you’ll read it and share it far and wide
<https://substack.com/redirect/84b4253b-e355-457a-8d53-02ea321a0757?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JqcnMifQ.igcDg8PbYVaoNwa8KkNFcFd4F8UG62mw8dh9tCR-8W4> , because it shines a spotlight on the real social
safety net fraud: Private businesses extracting billions of dollars in profit from a system that should instead be helping Americans re-enter the economy as easily and painlessly as
possible.
Be kind. Stay strong.