I don't think many politicians understand what "affordable" means.
It means that I have enough money to afford it.
It can mean that it costs less or that I have more money.
Too often, having more money has come with the cost climbing to meet the raise, or surpassing it.
Affordable doesn't mean that I want someone else to pay for it.
Affordable doesn't mean that I don't want the person selling it to not make a profit.
But I keep seeing a strong correlation between how tightly something is regulated and how expensive it is, along with a strong correlation between whether most people pay for it out of pocket or if an insurance company typically pays. There is also a strong relationship between government supplying the money for a good and the prices spiraling out of control.
Combine any or all of these things and it's logarithmic and/or exponentially more expensive.
Sprinkle in some union influence for the maximum price increases for minimum increase in value.
Just as macroeconomics can be summed up as, "Supply and demand, that's it!": Eliminating the middle man is one of the surest ways to make the price of something go down.
Politicians know exactly, but there is a wide gulf between what they say and what they mean.. Most important is they know what the word means to most people. They count on that.
ReplyDeletePeople may not know what the politician means, but that is not important. It is important to the pol that the people not know.
The word is a buzz word used to trigger emotions Nothing more or less.