It isn't so difficult to fix the unaffordability of life, the US government was, for a while, quite happy to experiment with programs that aided the working poor by providing financial relief so they could secure more stable employment and lives - Helsinki recently invested in a distributed free-housing campaign that has had a noticeable impact on poverty.

The US is stuck in a silly "American Tough" outlook of people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps when a little bit of well targeted aide can help society immensely. There is a wonderful old MLK quote

> We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor

so as a society we should closely examine the money that gets funneled to quantitative easing, subsidies for fossil fuels and other corporate bailouts, along with the reduction of progressive taxes like luxury and estate taxes... and consider how far that money would go if put into SNAP, CHIP and public housing.