Ben Shapiro: What makes things affordable?

Affordability. It's the word on everybody's lips.

Ever since self-described socialist Zohran Mamdani became the frontrunner in the New York City mayoral election by saying the word "affordability" with talismanic regularity, we have been told that the key to modern politics is that word's repetition. Say "affordability," and watch your polls rise.

And yet the world becomes ever more unaffordable.

Why?

Because there is, in the end, only one way to make things more affordable: to reduce prices. And there are only two ways to reduce prices: to reduce demand, or to increase supply.

But governmental interventionism tends to do precisely the reverse. Government interventions are generally designed to increase demand through subsidies, thus increasing prices; or they are designed to reduce s