The Affordability Illusion |
The Affordability Illusion
An entire generation can experience higher living costs while simultaneously making lifestyle choices that increase those costs.
Luis Gonzalez | November 4, 2026
A woman recently paid $32 to have an Arby's double roast beef sandwich delivered to her home. The sandwich cost $13.28. Uber Eats tacked on a $12 delivery fee, another $2 for distance, taxes, and a $3 tip. Thirty-two dollars for a sandwich. And then she complained about the price.
Something is profoundly wrong with that transaction, and it has little to do with roast beef. Somewhere along the way, getting off the couch, getting into a car, and picking up lunch became an inconvenience worth paying someone else to avoid. Apparently, $32 for a sandwich is preferable to making the trip.
This is the consumer economy Americans have built. We pay monthly fees for entertainment, finance phones that cost more than some people's first cars, subscribe to services that deliver everything from groceries to restaurant meals, and routinely spend money to avoid ordinary tasks. These expenses accumulate, become habits, and eventually find their way into the household budget as though they were unavoidable.
Then we wonder why everything costs so much.
Politicians have discovered that affordability is a useful campaign word. It turns every financial frustration into an indictment of government and gives every frustrated voter someone in Washington to blame. The political promise is always some variation of the same thing: lower prices, higher wages, and a government that will make life affordable again. What rarely enters the conversation is the other side of the household ledger. What have Americans decided they must have? How much of their income goes toward necessities, and how much goes toward maintaining a lifestyle that previous generations would have considered extraordinary? Politicians are eager to debate what things cost. They have considerably less interest in questioning what people expect to buy.
Food delivery is hardly an obscure indulgence. A January 2025 YouGov survey found that 28.2 percent of Americans used food delivery apps at least once a week. Nearly two in five Gen Z and millennial respondents did so. A Purdue........