✍️ People Don’t Pay an Affordability Bill
The economy people live with is measured in rent, groceries, healthcare, wages, utilities, transportation, and debt.
We pay rent. Or we pay on our mortgage. We buy groceries. We fill the gas tank. We pay insurance premiums, utility bills, medical bills, co-pays, credit card balances, car repair bills, childcare bills, and property tax bills.
We decide what can wait, what cannot, and what happens if one more expense lands before the next paycheck.
That is the economy most people live in. Not the Dow. Not gross domestic product. Not a quarterly earnings report. Not a politician’s favorite chart.
The real economy is whether people can afford the ordinary costs of staying housed, fed, healthy, employed, connected, and secure.
This is not a messaging exercise in search of a problem. The problem is already sitting on kitchen tables, in bank accounts, and in unpaid bills.
The bills people struggle to pay must be the top priority for candidates before Election Day and for officeholders afterward.
A Harris Poll for The Guardian found that 95% of Americans say the country faces an affordability crisis, and about half say they struggle to afford basics such as groceries and gas.
KFF reported in April 2026 that 64% of adults worry about affording healthcare costs, tied with concern about gas and transportation costs.
And Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies reported that nearly half of renter households were cost-burdened in 2024, spending more than 30% of income on rent and utilities.
So when candidates talk about “affordability,” they are pointing toward a real problem. But too often, they talk about it in language that is too broad to be useful.
People do not experience affordability in general. They experience specific costs.
Affordable housing. Affordable groceries. Affordable healthcare. Affordable childcare. Affordable transportation. Affordable utilities. Affordable insurance.
Wages that cover real life.
Affordable means within reach without forcing people to sacrifice food, medicine, housing, work, safety, or basic dignity.
That is the message candidates should use. That is also the language voters and activists should demand.
Even “affordable housing” needs clearer language.
Some people hear the phrase and think it means housing only for people with very low incomes. Others use it to mean housing that working people, young families, seniors, teachers, nurses, caregivers, service workers, and middle-income renters can actually afford.
Both concerns matter. But when the same phrase means different things to different people, politicians can sound compassionate while saying very little.
So, ask the next question: Affordable for whom? Affordable at what income? Affordable because rents are lower, wages are higher, public support is stronger, or supply is larger? Affordable now, or affordable only in a campaign brochure?
In plain language: Say “housing people can afford,” then explain which people and how.
We should expect politicians to talk about all their ideas in plain language—in terms that make sense to us.
Make candidates get specific
Don’t settle for:
“We care about affordability.”
Ask:
What will you do to raise wages?
What will you do to lower housing costs?
What will you do to lower healthcare costs?
What will you do about childcare?
What will you do about utility bills?
What will you do about grocery prices?
What will you do about transportation costs?
And don’t stop there. Ask the questions that turn campaign language into accountability:
What policy would you support?
Who pays?
Who benefits?
When would people feel the difference?
Action resources at Plainly, Garbl
For readers who want to move from concern to action, these advocacy resources may help:
Social Safety Net and Economic Security—organizations strengthening support for individuals, families, and communities.
Affordable Housing and Homelessness—advocacy groups working to expand access to housing and support people experiencing homelessness.
Economic Equity and Stability—organizations promoting economic security, fair wages, and opportunities for working families.
Political Action for Introverts, Extroverts, and Everyone in Between—a guide to finding activist work that fits your temperament, energy, skills, and comfort level
Suggested Text for Writing Email Messages to Elected Officials—it could also work as a script for phone calls
Contact Information: Washington’s U.S. Senators and Representatives
Contacting Washington State Officials and Key Departments
Advocacy Groups Working to Influence Local Government