The wealth divide is exacerbated by two different types of inflation. While wages are benchmarked against CPI (consumer goods), wealth for asset-holders grows with "asset price inflation" (stocks, real estate), which compounds much faster. Young people paid in cash cannot keep up.

The primary driver of wealth inequality isn't income, but asset ownership. Government money printing to cover deficit spending inflates asset prices. This forces those who understand finance to buy assets, which then appreciate, widening the gap between them and those who don't own assets.

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.

A proposed 50-year mortgage, intended to improve housing affordability, is a flawed solution. The extended term means borrowers build equity at a negligible rate, making the financial outcome similar to renting and failing to deliver the key wealth-building benefit of homeownership. It's a demand-side fix for a supply-side problem.

Homeownership is the primary vehicle for intergenerational wealth creation in the United States. The average household has four times more wealth tied up in their home than in stock market investments, highlighting the severe economic impact of declining ownership rates.

Rising calls for socialist policies are not just about wealth disparity, but symptoms of three core failures: unaffordable housing, fear of healthcare-driven bankruptcy, and an education system misaligned with job outcomes. Solving these fundamental problems would alleviate the pressure for radical wealth redistribution far more effectively.

A household's primary assets differ dramatically by wealth level. For the poor, a car is their largest asset. For the middle class, it's their primary residence. The rich, however, disproportionately own income-producing business interests. This highlights the shift from non-income producing assets to income-producing ones as wealth grows.

As homeownership becomes unattainable without generational wealth, social mobility is stalling. The growing gap between asset owners and renters is calcifying, transforming the American economic structure from a meritocracy into a caste-like system where your financial starting point determines your destiny.

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.