Total Boomer Luxury Communism Only Compounds the Issue
Whichever political party solves the affordability crisis could inaugurate a new political dynasty. It could mirror how the New Deal Democratic Party dominated politics for decades after FDR won an unprecedented four presidential elections. The coalition’s intimidating power even caused President Eisenhower to write in 1954 that “any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs” would never be heard from “again.”
Donald Trump is acutely aware of the affordability problem, even if he may prefer not to use that exact term. He’s recently been noting that he inherited an economic disaster from the Biden administration (left unsaid is that his Covid giveaways in 2020 likely made things worse). But blaming it on Biden and the Democrats alone will not be enough to assuage the very real concerns of most voters.
This is why Trump is also focused on trying to deliver tangible results. Beef and coffee have been exempted from his tariff spree. He’s also floated a plan to send a $2,000 check to every American from the revenue collected from the tariffs thus far. Egg prices have dropped precipitously, as has the national average price of gasoline. And inflation has declined significantly from a high of 9.1% in 2022 to a low of 3% in September (though the recent low of 2.9% was reached in late 2024). Additionally, real average weekly earnings rose about 1% during the first eight months of Trump’s second term in office.
As Vice President JD Vance recently noted, “We’re going to keep working to make a decent life affordable in this country, and that’s the metric by which we’ll ultimately be judged in 2026 and beyond.”
This is a far cry from the Romney/Ryan Republican Party of the past. The GOP of that era almost treated economic considerations wholly as a law of gravity: the conditions were a given, and politics couldn’t change things in any fundamental way. Factories moving outside of the United States was simply the price of globalization, and couldn’t be stopped even if politicians wanted to do so.
As former Senator Ben Sasse once described it in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, ours is an age of “economic disruption” in which middle-aged people will likely see “their jobs evaporate, [and] get retrained” in another field. Meanwhile, he saw tariffs as merely “taxes on American families.” They served no positive purpose for U.S. statecraft—a view wholly out of step with most of the American political tradition, including the Republican Party’s historical view of tariffs.
But this economic Hegelianism was predictably a loser with the American electorate—and Trump’s rejection of it was one of the reasons he won the presidency multiple times. He understood that the hollowing out of the heartland to increase GDP by an extra tenth of a percent was a raw deal. Politicians of both parties made a series of political choices going back decades that traded the U.S.’s birthright for the stew of cheap TVs and easy money.
But no more. The Trump GOP’s turn toward rediscovering the category of political economy has paid off. It has helped build the foundations of an electoral coalition that could be a political juggernaut in the decades to come.
Trump’s focus on economics as a means, not an end, can be seen in the recently released National Security Strategy (NSS). Produced by Michael Anton and Arthur Milikh at the State Department, among others serving in the Trump administration, the 2025 NSS puts the good of the oikos (household) back at the center of American economic life.
“We must rebuild an economy in which prosperity is broadly based and widely shared,” the NSS states, “not concentrated at the top or localized in certain industries or a few parts of our country.” Reindustrializing, reshoring manufacturing, controlling our own supply chains, ensuring that Americans keep more of their hard-earned money—the NSS mentions all of these as keys to protecting American citizens and families from predatory behavior from our adversaries and making life more affordable. Even more, it envisions a dynamic, cutting-edge economy that can help unleash a new golden age for the United States and its citizens.
This comes as the president faces a series of difficult political tests involving affordability.
A new Politico poll finds that 46% of Americans say the Trump administration is now mostly or fully responsible for the current economic crisis. Prices for housing, groceries, energy, and health care have increased by approximately 25% in the past four years alone. This has happened while the U.S. has also become the leader in construction productivity decline, which has plummeted over the last five years. Though wages went up during the administration’s early months in 2025, economist E.J. Antoni points out that real earnings growth was flat in the third quarter.
Summing up the problem, Antoni argues that the American Dream has “steadily turned into a nightmare of unaffordability as the price of necessities like housing hit stratospheric levels.” Though that view may seem hyperbolic, it’s not. A recent study by Bankrate found that 75% of homes on the market are unaffordable for the typical American household.
If your conservative family member still wonders how a “Communist” like Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race, just cite one of these data points.
None of this is to say that all of the data flying around on the “do something” side has been completely accurate. Tyler Cowen recently showed that the claim that $140,000 is the new poverty line is likely incorrect. And an undue focus on structural economic issues can lead one to minimize one’s own agency. Despite the systemic problems in the U.S. economy, Christians shouldn’t use that as an excuse to avoid working hard, raising a family, or finding quality housing.
But it does indicate that the world has changed markedly from the one the Boomers grew up in. Telling younger generations that bootstrapping alone is the answer without acknowledging the myriad structural economic issues only breeds resentment and anger. Most Americans are getting caught in a vise, and much of Middle America is getting crushed. Even those who are earning in the low six figures are increasingly barely scraping by, or even losing money each month.
Something else that will add to the antipathy younger generations have for Boomers is how the latter have been benefiting from a massive redistribution of wealth. This phenomenon is what Russ Greene and others call Total Boomer Luxury Communism. Greene says that the U.S. “spends at least six times as much per person on social programs as China—and most of that goes to seniors.” Seniors take in funds from Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement programs, which make them far wealthier than younger generations.
Greene’s example on that front is illuminating:
Today, most Americans have no idea how their tax dollars are spent. For example, 91% do not know that Social Security benefits can reach over $60,000 per person. They have no idea that a senior household can collect nearly $117,000 a year just from Social Security. And if you tell people that Medicare programs cover golf balls, greens fees, social clubs, ski trips, and horseback riding, they stare in disbelief.
Boomers have successfully created a regime in which wealth redistribution is seen as an untouchable third rail of politics, ensuring that money keeps flowing from the federal spigot, even in the worst of times.
This situation, however, will not last. A massive wealth transfer will occur over the next couple of decades, as Baby Boomers currently hold around $83.3 trillion, or half the wealth of the United States (those 55 and over hold 73% of all U.S. wealth). This is further complicated by the fact that Democrats and Republicans “agree on at least 85% of federal spending,” as Greene notes. Both parties have helped support the Boomers through passing budget after budget without making any changes to the welfare programs that are set to bankrupt our nation.
Navigating the handoff from the Boomers to younger generations, along with getting immigration under control, are arguably the two most important domestic priorities for the Trump administration and beyond. Greene warns, “If we don’t radically overhaul America’s entitlement regime, our entire nation will become a naturally occurring retirement community.”
As the battle of the sexes has turned political in countries like South Korea, the battle of the generations looks to dominate U.S. domestic politics for at least the next couple of decades. And it could turn nasty as younger generations fully come to grips with the enormous issues the Boomers have left them to fix.
