Pete’s take
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Democrats “defined everything by identity,” Pete Buttigieg says in critique of his party
The former U.S. transportation secretary said the Democratic Party should focus more on issues gripping the country, such as health care and housing affordability.https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/14/texas-tribune-festival-pete-buttigieg-2/
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The cost of living crisis under the Biden administration continues unabated under the Trump administration.
Old school leftists who identified by many names starting in the late 19th century understood the central importance of the structure and functioning of economic systems to the working class.
My cursory study of the middle class as it existed starting in the 18th century has led me to believe the middle class including those families who have achieved wealth and social status have had an unfortunate tendency to kick down
those on the latter who lack their fortunate circumstances.I think this is self-defeating but haven't found a way to articulate this argument in a practical way.
I keep beating this drum but I think there's a tremendous differentiation today in the US between the approximately 770,000 people who are homeless and everyone else.
It's profoundly unjust, imo, for the government to take the position that the homeless are nothing but an unsightly nusuidance comprised of mentally ill drug addicts.
It's very clear that people of all ages and backgrounds in every state are becoming homeless because of the cost of living crisis.
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"Affordability." Period. It worked in the election a few weeks ago in 3 disparate locations.
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Affordability is key, but it needs to be generalized rather than lottery-based. Meaning abundance to increase supply and lower prices for all. The typical “affordable housing” approach in NY where they gift a handful of random individuals a sweet housing deal actually makes the problem worse.
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@Piano-Dad said in Pete’s take:
Increase the supply of housing FTW.
+1
I'd add, imho, there should be many well made smaller houses being built, similar in quality to the housing stock built from concrete block in Florida in the '40's, '50's, and '60's, suitable to local climates.
My grandfather bought his family's house in Tampa in '63 for less than $15,000.
My father built his family's house (he was an electrician; his friends were carpenters, plumbers, etc.), the same I posted pictures of, in NYS in '73 for less than $25,000.
$400,000 for a starter home, many of them new construction and poor build quality?
It's the reality of the worsening homeless crisis in the US affecting people of all ages, in all states, from family's with children to people in their '90's, that is unnecessary and galling.
