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Everyone wants lower prices. Voters say they want lower prices in exit polls. Political candidates run entire campaigns on lowering prices. Any internet discussion can be derailed in an instant by complaining about how much things cost. In 2024, Donald Trump and Republicans surged to power on a wave of anger and resentment at high prices.
Then he immediately jacked the effective tariff rate from 2% to 10% and caused a global energy crisis by starting another war in the Middle East. Now Texas is run by Democrats.
Why? I think the answer is public choice theory. Despite inflation being the number 1 political issue of the last two US general elections, nobody gets into politics to lower consumer prices. Strong consumer sentiment is not a terminal value of ~any of our politicians. It is good with solely instrumental value in that it allows politicians to spend political capital on the things they actually care about, like open borders, ethnic squabbles, corporate profits, or wars.
There is a Matt Yglesias take that even though Republican economic policy is on paper better than Democrat economic policy, Republican presidents end up with worse economic performance because they always start pointless foreign wars, causing both global supply shocks and a rundown of the treasury to pay for military expenditures. It’s hard to argue with this. I’m sort of left going, “real Republican governance has never been tried.”
I want politicians to fund R&D of efficient production and logistics, find and reduce obvious government waste (and if corrupt beneficiaries stall this, just push them towards using their grants slightly better), and invest in education/community/crime so citizens cause less waste.
A big cost is military. Sure, we need a big military, and they’re not exactly the easiest to take money from given they have the guns. But can we stop or at least reduce blowing up $millions of equipment in training exercises?
A big cost is healthcare. Why doesn’t the government provide everyone overweight free Ozempic? Why doesn’t it update school curricula to teach basic health (it took RFK to abolish the food pyramid)? Why doesn’t it force insurance to cover preventative measures (yes, this will increase short-term costs, but obviously decrease long-term expenses, and at this level of debt what’s another $1 trillion?)
A common big expense is rent. My understanding is there are many vacant residences, why doesn’t the government just force landlords to rent them within n years or sell? And fund infrastructure in rural towns with empty houses nobody wants to live in, and build new houses and infrastructure in rural areas, and invest in better logistics for building those areas and giving them modern conveniences?
Yes, governments can’t just pay everyone and forcibly lower store prices without it backfiring nearly immediately. But there are obvious ways a somewhat (barely) competent government can reduce median COL within years if not months, without accumulating debt, scaring away businesses, etc. (anything I missed?)
Energy related:
Force roof top solar for all new builds. The panels are cheap (even with the tariffs, which aren't a bad idea if you want tor ramp domestic production capacity) and the roofer is up there anyway. This directly results in drastically lower energy costs for the lifetime of the roof. Consider cheap government loans for rooftop solar on existing roofs.
In addition/instead force the utilities to do dynamic/real-time pricing for electricity. Force them all to follow a standard, so AC units, heat pumps and EV chargers can be "smart" with minimal effort.
Close the light truck/SUV loophole in the CAFE standards and the Energy Tax Act for new cars. 90%+ of big cars are a fashion fad, and people have to be forced to spend less on gas. Closing the loopholes also might result in some long overdue innovation for ICE cars. There's absolutely zero reason why any 2026 ICE car doesn't come with a Toyota Synergy Drive-style drive train and an automatic 30%-50% better fuel economy.
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Rule number 0 of US electoral politics is that you do NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, do or advocate anything that might threaten the value of
boomer retirement savings vehiclessingle family homes. It is political suicide.More options
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