Meaningful affordability cannot be achieved with superficial fixes. It requires long-term, structural solutions: building 5-10 million more homes to address housing costs (40% of CPI), implementing universal healthcare to lower medical expenses, expanding public higher education, and aggressive antitrust enforcement to foster competition.

The core threat to society and democracy is not political division but economic inequality. A lack of mobility creates a "crisis of hope," particularly in overlooked regions like rural America. This hopelessness leads to anger and irrational behavior that erodes democratic foundations.

Extreme wealth creates a dangerous societal rift not just through inequality, but by allowing the ultra-rich to opt out of public systems. They have their own concierge healthcare, private transportation, and elite schools, making them immune to and ignorant of the struggles faced by the other 99.9%, which fuels populist anger.

Young people feel a sense of betrayal after following the prescribed path—good grades, college—only to graduate with immense debt into a job market with few opportunities and an unaffordable housing market. This broken promise fuels their economic anxiety.

Recent elections show a clear pattern: politicians win by focusing on groceries, rent, and healthcare. These three categories, dubbed the "unholy trinity," represent the biggest inflation pain points and make up 55% of the average American's cost of living, making them the decisive political issue.

The narrative that personal problems require therapy pathologizes what are often systemic economic issues. You cannot "therapy your way out of material precarity." Structural solutions like higher wages, affordable housing, and a stronger social safety net are often more effective mental health policies than individual introspection.

Extreme wealth inequality creates a fundamental risk beyond social unrest. When the most powerful citizens extricate themselves from public systems—schools, security, healthcare, transport—they lose empathy and any incentive to invest in the nation's core infrastructure. This decay of shared experience and investment leads to societal fragility.

A serious approach to the affordability crisis requires a multi-year strategy targeting the biggest cost drivers: housing (massive supply increase), healthcare (nationalization), and education (income-based tuition), combined with aggressive antitrust enforcement. Piecemeal solutions from either party fail to address the systemic nature of the problem.

America's mental health crisis is largely driven by economic precarity. Systemic solutions like a higher minimum wage, affordable housing, and universal healthcare would be more effective at improving population well-being than an individualistic focus on therapy, which often treats symptoms rather than the root cause of financial stress.