Make America Rich As F

IT'S TIME TO

MAKE AMERICA RICH AS F.

Shit got too expensive, everyone is angry, you work harder and earn less than your parents did, and it's because we have idiots in government (Dems and Repubs alike) supporting dumb policies.

LET'S FIX IT!

How much prices rose, January 2000 to today

Rose faster than your payYour pay
↑ Ran away from your paycheck
Family health insurance
+319%
Hospital bills
+293%
Home prices
+237%
College & childcare
+192%
Electricity
+152%
Rent
+148%
YOUR PAYCHECK
+137%

Jan 2000 to Aug 2026. Paycheck = average hourly earnings of non-supervisory workers. Prices: BLS consumer price index categories, Case-Shiller home prices (to Jul 2026), BLS earnings, all via FRED. Family health insurance: KFF employer premiums, 2000 to 2025.

You can't buy a houseHome prices +237% Your health care sucksInsurance +319% You can't afford shitPower bills +152%

What's in it for you?

How much richer would you be?

Three questions. We add up what each idea below is worth to your household by the end of one four-year term, using published research. Change anything.

Your home
Fine-tune

A typical household

+$2,190a year

by the end of one term, about $5,950 over the four years.
Low-to-high range $1,050 to $3,900 a year.

See where it comes from

LET'S GET YOU AN AFFORDABLE FUCKIN' MANSION

Surprise: crazy expensive housing in the USA today is not because of greedy builders or avocado toast. In most of America it's literally illegal to build anything but one big house per lot. Your parents made it illegal to build new housing so their house prices would go up, screwing you and your kids. Let's fix!

+237%
Home prices since 2000
+137%
Your paycheck since 2000
1

Make it legal to build homes again

Let's obliterate NIMBYs, literally mulch them up into dust. Destroy red tape, eliminate friction to housing starts, and build, build, build, baby. Allow townhomes and apartments near jobs. Scrap parking mandates and giant lot sizes. An increase in housing supply anywhere means less upward price pressure EVERYWHERE!

Impact: MassiveWho: States, cities + Congress
See the proof
How you're getting screwed

Zoning bans apartments and townhomes on most residential land, demands huge lots and parking, and lets a few neighbors block new homes for years.

The fix

  • The Japanese figured this shit out. Get rid of 'single family only' zoning so neighborhoods can't block apartments from being built across town. Legalize duplexes, townhomes and apartments "by right" near jobs and transit.
  • Fucking jettison the expensive 'Environmental Review' bullshit that NIMBYs abuse to make it too expensive to start building housing.
  • End parking minimums and giant minimum lot sizes. This is stupid.
  • Reward cities that build with federal infrastructure and housing money. Since zoning is a state and local power, we can rip funding away from the NIMBY zoning boards that are screwing you by taking away the free money their cities and states get from your tax dollars.

Example Rent growth, 2017–2022

Minneapolis (built 12% more homes)
+1%
Rest of Minnesota (only built 4% more)
+14%

Source: Pew Charitable Trusts, 2024

−16%
Austin median rent, Dec 2021 → Jan 2026, after adding 120,000 homes
$1,700
Saved per year by the typical Minneapolis renter
Sources
  1. Pew: Minneapolis Land Use Reforms Offer a Blueprint for Housing Affordability (2024)
  2. Pew: Austin's Surge of New Housing Construction Drove Down Rents (2026)
  3. Glaeser & Gyourko: The Economic Implications of Housing Supply, Journal of Economic Perspectives (2018)
2

Tax the land, not the house

Your property tax punishes you for building. Add a bedroom, a backyard cottage or an apartment building and your bill jumps, while the guy sitting on an empty lot downtown waiting for prices to rise pays almost nothing. Flip it: cut the tax on buildings, raise it on land. Same total revenue. Build something and you aren't punished. Hoard a vacant lot and it costs you.

Impact: Medium, local, compoundsWho: States enable it, cities adopt it, feds can fund it
See the proof
How you're getting screwed

A normal property tax hits land and buildings at the same rate, so improving property is taxed and sitting on it is cheap. Surface parking and vacant lots in hot neighborhoods sit idle for years because holding them costs so little. And the assessments are tilted against you: nationwide, the cheapest homes are assessed at about twice the rate of the most expensive ones.

The fix (doable in one term)

  • States: pass a law letting any city choose a "split-rate" property tax, with land taxed at a higher rate than buildings, revenue-neutral. Virginia and Kentucky did exactly this in 2026. Pennsylvania cities have been allowed to for decades.
  • Cities: phase it in over 3 to 5 years, with a homestead protection so long-time homeowners on big lots don't get a sudden spike. Detroit's plan would cut the rate on buildings from 2% to 0.6% and make up the difference with a higher land rate.
  • Fix assessments first: value land and buildings separately, with modern methods, and publish them. Cook County's assessment overhaul alone shifted $1.9 billion in taxes off lower- and middle-value homes.
  • Federal: no new federal tax and no constitutional amendment. Congress and HUD can pay for assessment upgrades and give extra points in competitive housing grants to places that adopt it.

Honest caveats: the effect is real but gradual, not overnight. Bad assessments sink it: Pittsburgh used a split rate for decades and repealed it in 2001 after a botched reassessment. A few state constitutions require uniform tax rates and would need a fix first.

+2–5 pts
Extra growth in housing units per decade in Pennsylvania places with a split-rate tax
2×
Assessment rate on the cheapest homes vs. the most expensive, nationwide
5×
Pittsburgh's land rate vs. its building rate after 1979. Construction rose while comparable Rust Belt cities fell (other factors helped too)
2026
Year Virginia and Kentucky passed laws letting their cities do this
Sources
  1. Banzhaf & Lavery: Can the Land Tax Help Curb Urban Sprawl? Evidence from Growth Patterns in Pennsylvania, Journal of Urban Economics (2010); Lincoln Institute working paper
  2. Oates & Schwab: The Impact of Urban Land Taxation: The Pittsburgh Experience, National Tax Journal (1997)
  3. Berry: Reassessing the Property Tax, University of Chicago (2021)
  4. University of Chicago study of Cook County's assessment reforms, via the Cook County Assessor (2025)
  5. Virginia HB 282 (2026): split-rate authority for four more cities
  6. Kentucky HB 607 (2026): split-rate authority for Louisville Metro's urban services district
  7. Bipartisan Policy Center: Detroit, a case study on taxing land instead of property

LET'S MAKE your HEALTHCARE CHEAP AND BADASS!

Half of the country wants socialized medicine while the other half calls it communism. Our current system sucks because it's pretty much the worst of everything. Let's blast it apart, give you your own money back instead of paying crazy amounts to an insurance company, and bring cost transparency through to bring prices down NOW and make your life better.

$26,993
Average family health insurance premium, per year (2025)
1.9×
What we spend per person vs. other rich countries (2024)
1

We artificially limit the supply of doctors, this is stupid and we are going to stop doing it

We need to fund way more residency slots, fast-track badass foreign doctors to incentivize them to move here (literally this is free, why aren't we doing this), and let nurse practitioners do more. Shorter waits, smaller bills.

Impact: High, grows over timeWho: Congress + states
See the proof
How you're getting screwed

Since 1997, Congress has capped the number of residency slots Medicare funds. Fewer doctors means longer waits and higher prices.

The fix

  • Lift the 1997 cap on Medicare-funded residency slots. Congress has added only 1,200 since (in 2021 and 2023).
  • States: copy Tennessee's 2023 law that lets experienced foreign-trained doctors get licensed without redoing residency.
  • Let nurse practitioners and pharmacists handle more routine care.

Health spending per person, per year

United States
$14,775
Peer rich countries
$7,860

Source: Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, 2024 data (published 2026)

86,000
Doctor shortage by 2036 (high-end estimate)
1997
Year Congress froze Medicare-funded residency slots
Sources
  1. Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker: How does health spending in the U.S. compare to other countries? (2026)
  2. Peterson-KFF: How Do Health Care Prices and Utilization in the U.S. Compare to Peer Nations?
  3. AAMC: New Report Confirms Growing Physician Shortage (2024)
2

Break up hospital monopolies

Your city probably only has a couple options because of these dumbass mega mergers that fleece you due to a lack of competition. Block mergers that leave one hospital system in town, and stop letting existing hospitals veto new competitors.

Impact: HighWho: FTC + states
See the proof
How you're getting screwed

When one hospital system owns the town, it charges insurers more, and you pay it back in premiums. In many states, "certificate of need" laws let existing hospitals block new clinics.

The fix

  • FTC: block hospital mergers that create local monopolies.
  • States: repeal certificate of need laws.
  • Enforce price transparency so you can see what care costs before you get it.
+12%
Higher prices at monopoly hospitals vs. areas with 4+ competitors
+293%
Hospital prices since 2000
Sources
  1. Cooper, Craig, Gaynor & Van Reenen: The Price Ain't Right? Hospital Prices and Health Spending on the Privately Insured, QJE (2019)
  2. BLS consumer price index: hospital and related services, via FRED
3

Let's put all that tax-free money you and your company pay in fucking awful health insurance premiums into badass health savings accounts instead, and let the doctors and insurance companies compete for your business

Let anyone put pre-tax money aside for care and pay a flat monthly fee for a doctor they actually see. Richer people than you are doing this now (look up 'Concierge Doctor'). Let's just standardize it and put your healthcare in your own damn hands.

Impact: MediumWho: Congress
See the proof
How you're getting screwed

Only people with certain insurance plans can open a health savings account, so most people pay for routine care with after-tax money. Your company pays an enormous amount towards your health insurance. You don't take your insurance with you when you leave, but your HSA is yours to keep for life!

The fix

  • Build on the 2025 law, which opened HSAs to bronze and catastrophic marketplace plans and allowed direct primary care memberships.
  • Next step: let anyone open an HSA, whatever insurance they have.
$150/mo
Direct primary care fee you can now pay from an HSA (2026)
Sources
  1. Venable: HSA and direct primary care changes in the 2025 tax law

LET'S MAKE IT SO YOU CAN AFFORD SHIT

Power bills are climbing because we don't build power plants. Cheap shit cant get imported because the government taxes the hell out of everything that crosses the border. Your company can't sell shit overseas because those countries tax your stuff in retaliation when you send it to them. And local governments are making it illegal for new people to work unless you pay dumb licensing fees.

+152%
Electricity prices since 2000
$1,000+
What tariffs cost the typical household each year
1

Tariffs fucking suck I promise you. Let's fucking jettison them into the sun.

Tariffs are taxes! You're paying more for shit! This makes things more expensive! It slows down the economy. Foreign governments then tax your stuff when you try to sell overseas in retaliation! Let's blast tariffs and get access to the world market with juicy trade agreements all over, so prices fall within months.

Impact: Very high, fastWho: President on day 1, Congress to lock it in
See the proof
How you're getting screwed

Every tariff is collected at the border and passed on to you in the price of cars, appliances, tools and groceries. It's a tax. You are being taxed. Is this clear? You're being taxed and it's dumb.

The fix

  • The President can lower or end the Section 232 (steel, aluminum and more) and Section 301 tariffs without Congress.
  • Join the Pacific trade pact (CPTPP) that we helped design and then walked away from in 2017.
  • Congress should take back tariff power. The Supreme Court already ruled in February 2026 that emergency powers (IEEPA) can't be used for tariffs.
~100%
Share of the 2018 tariffs' cost passed on to US buyers
$815,000
What consumers paid per factory job "saved" by the 2018 washing machine tariffs
Sources
  1. Amiti, Redding & Weinstein: The Impact of the 2018 Tariffs on Prices and Welfare, JEP (2019)
  2. Flaaen, Hortaçsu & Tintelnot: The Production Relocation and Price Effects of US Trade Policy: The Case of Washing Machines, AER (2020)
  3. Yale Budget Lab: The State of U.S. Tariffs (about $1,100 per household per year under current law, Aug 2026)
2

UNLIMITED POWER! Let's build power plants and power lines fast

New power plants wait about 5 years just to plug into the grid. Clear the line and your electric bill stops climbing.

Impact: HighWho: Congress + federal agencies
See the proof
How you're getting screwed

Less supply means higher electric bills, and AI data centers are pushing demand up fast. You're about to get screwed even worse!

The fix

  • Fund and require faster grid hookup studies.
  • Give the federal government power to approve the big power lines that cross state borders.
  • Shorten the window for lawsuits that can stall approved projects for years.
  • Some progress already: Congress set 1–2 year deadlines for environmental reviews in 2023, and the Supreme Court narrowed them in 2025. Let's finish the job!

Months a typical power project waits to connect to the grid

Built in 2008
22
Built in 2015
36
Built in 2024
55

Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Queued Up 2025

13%
Share of power projects that requested a grid hookup (2000–2020) and actually got built
4.5 yrs
Average time for a full federal environmental review (2010–2018)
Sources
  1. Berkeley Lab: Queued Up, 2025 Edition
  2. Berkeley Lab: Queued Up, 2026 Edition
  3. White House Council on Environmental Quality: Environmental Impact Statement Timelines (2020)
  4. BLS consumer price index: electricity, via FRED
3

Make it legal to work, what the fuck! Stop needing a permission slip to work

Mandate licensing reciprocity between states by gutting their funding if they don't. If you're licensed in one state, you can work in any state. Drop licenses for jobs with no real safety risk.

Impact: Medium, cheap to doWho: States, federal can nudge
See the proof
How you're getting screwed

Hair braiders, florists and interior designers can need hundreds of hours of training and fees to legally work. That means fewer small businesses, higher prices, and a hard time moving for a better job. Why do interior designers need hundreds of hours of training. Why is the state licensing a florist. This is dumb and it's meant to limit competition, meaning you pay more and people who are bad at their jobs don't have to improve.

The fix

  • Universal license recognition across states.
  • Remove licenses for jobs where there's no real safety risk.

Share of US workers who need a government license

1950s
5%
2015
25%

Source: White House Council of Economic Advisers, 2015

Sources
  1. Occupational Licensing: A Framework for Policymakers, White House (2015)
4

LET'S IMPORT CUSTOMERS! Let in the workers we need

Green cards for the engineers and doctors we train, and more visas for builders and farmworkers. More workers, more businesses, lower deficits.

Impact: HighWho: Mostly Congress, agencies can cut backlogs
See the proof
How you're getting screwed

We train brilliant engineers and doctors, then send them to other countries to make and buy their things instead of yours. If they want a green card here, we make them wait decades. On the other side, we're short on the construction workers who'd build your badass house and the farm laborers who make your groceries cheap. Most important? ALL of these people would be CUSTOMERS, buying things from YOU after making YOUR life CHEAPER and BETTER.

The fix

  • Staple a green card to US advanced STEM degrees.
  • Raise or end the per-country caps that create decades-long waits.
  • Expand work visas for construction and farm work.
  • Agencies: clear processing backlogs now. (Visa caps like the H-1B limit are set in law, so raising them takes Congress.)
$0.9T
How much the recent immigration surge lowers federal deficits over 10 years (CBO)
~1 in 4
US companies founded by immigrants
Sources
  1. CBO: Effects of the Immigration Surge on the Federal Budget and the Economy (2024)
  2. Azoulay, Jones, Kim & Miranda: Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the United States, AER: Insights (2022)

Let's dunk on the haters. 

Being evidence-based means saying no to popular ideas when the data doesn't back them up.

"Protect jobs with tariffs"

Every "saved" job costs consumers far more than the job pays, and it kills jobs at the factories that use those materials. The 2018 washing machine tariffs cost buyers about $815,000 per job they created. A Federal Reserve study of the 2018–2019 tariffs found they cost more manufacturing jobs than they protected: pricier parts and foreign retaliation outweighed the protection.

Flaaen, Hortaçsu & Tintelnot, AER (2020) · Flaaen & Pierce, Federal Reserve (2019)

"Help buyers with down payments and lower interest rates"

Handing out more money to buy the same number of homes just raises prices. Focusing on lowering rates makes access to capital cheaper, again driving up prices. THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE. Build more homes first. Just BUILD!

"We should just do single payer (says the left) / we should just destroy Obamacare (says the right) and it will all be better"

Single payer won't pass. The leading Medicare for All plan would add about $34 trillion in federal spending over 10 years and end the private insurance most workers get through their jobs. Support falls as soon as people hear that: it slipped from 56% to 51% in 2019 as the debate turned to scrapping private plans, and Republican support collapsed to 15%.

Repeal won't pass either. House Republicans voted 60+ times to repeal or gut Obamacare, and the 2017 Senate "skinny repeal" still failed 49–51. Going back means going back to this: family premiums up 131% from 1999 to 2009 while wages rose 38%, insurers able to turn away the 27% of adults under 65 with a pre-existing condition, and lifetime caps on your coverage. Since then the uninsured rate has fallen from 15.5% (2010) to 8% (2024).

So stop waiting for a knockout that never comes. Neither side has the votes to take over the system or blow it up. Keep the protections, put the money in your hands, and make doctors, hospitals and insurers compete for it.

Urban Institute estimate (2019), via Mercatus · KFF polling via Fiscal Times · NPR · Becker's on 2017 vote · KFF 2009 premiums · KFF pre-existing conditions · Census 2010 · Census 2024

Why trust this?

Every number on this page links to its source: government data, peer-reviewed research, the Congressional Budget Office and nonpartisan think tanks. If the evidence changes, we change our minds.