Economic Security Project

An ideas advocacy org building economic power for all. ⬇️

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

@mtkonczal

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

Housing is the biggest expense most families face. And right now, it's nearly impossible for millions of Americans to get ahead of it — over 21 million households spend more than a third of their income on housing, and 62% of Americans say buying a home is simply unrealistic in 2026.

But the political will to change this is building. And we're meeting the moment.

Next Wednesday, June 10, at 3 pm ET / 12 pm PT, we’re hosting a virtual webinar to introduce our new report, “Building Affordability: The Policy Agenda for America's Housing Crisis,” a comprehensive roadmap spanning land use reform, expanded public housing options, industrial policy, direct cash support, and stronger tenant protections.

Register to join the conversation: https://t.co/byPHfeDsKQ

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

Working families are facing an affordability crisis. Rising costs, hidden fees, and a tax system that was not built for them are making it harder to get ahead.

Our partners at Economic Security Illinois Action just wrapped up a big session in Springfield fighting back against exactly that. 

See what they won for working families.
https://t.co/AKgUkPIM0L

[Economic Security Project Action @ESP_Action]

🎉 The Illinois legislative session is a wrap. And we have a lot to celebrate.

Working families in Illinois have been squeezed by rising prices and corporate greed. This session, we fought back—and we won:
✅ Hidden junk fees are banned. After three years of advocacy, HB 228 passed. The price you see is the price you pay. No more hidden “convenience” or “processing” fees at checkout.
✅Illinois now has the ability to support local guaranteed income initiatives like the Newborn Equity Support Transfer (NEST), laying the foundation for future investments in economic security.

These victories were made possible by our coalition partners, advocates, parent leaders, and community members who showed up, spoke out, and refused to back down.

This is what fighting for working families looks like. And our fight continues.

Read our full statement here: 🔗
https://t.co/PCPPaTXBgV

Thank you to our partners @COFIOnline @LIFTCommunities @Move_UpTogether @ChiTrust @StartEarlyorg @FoodDepository @newmomschicago @latinopolicy @LeagueWomenVote @IllinoisStand @ChicagoVotes @actnforchildren

And legislators @SenatorAquino @RepBobMorgan @RepKellyCassidy @graciela4senate

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

“One thing about the data dividend that I think is really interesting is the extent to which it underlines the fact that AI is a collective endeavor.” — @readmaxread

Every AI chatbot or tool is built on terabytes of words and data that people created—our writing, conversations, art, and collective knowledge.

So if AI companies are profiting off our collective knowledge, shouldn’t we get a return?

That's the idea behind a data dividend. Discussed at our Wages, Work, and AI panel at #GINOW2026, it's a growing policy idea that would require tech companies to pay regular cash returns to the public for the data powering their AI systems.

Watch the full session featuring ESP Executive Director @taylorjo, Rayan Semery-Palumbo, Anna Yelizarova, and Max Read: https://t.co/qAHmakJlu9

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

"Taxing AI is one way we make sure the winnings from AI benefit all Americans, rather than channeling them only to the wealthy few."

From excise taxes on data centers to overhauling a tax code that penalizes hiring humans to taxing billionaires on their wealth — there are real pathways to building shared prosperity in an AI economy. @SenWarren lays out the case. 👇
https://t.co/mATEKPP59o

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

Families are working harder than ever and still can't afford the basics. A new CNN shows how Americans feel about the affordability crisis. 76% say the high cost of living is the biggest economic problem facing their families. 67% say their wages can't keep up with rising prices. Only 1 in 3 can cover a $1,000 emergency. The strain cuts across income, party, and generation.

The pattern is clear. Broken markets are driving up the cost of essentials — groceries, housing, utilities — while wages haven't kept up. Fixing the affordability crisis means tackling both sides of the problem, like putting money directly in people's pockets through a #guaranteedincome and tax credits, and investing in public options like city-owned grocery stores.
https://t.co/AARVGu5Lzv

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

The affordability crisis is solvable — it just takes political will, explains ESP Executive Director @taylorjo in @damemagazine.

Proven solutions like universal childcare, guaranteed income, and moving toward universal healthcare coverage are all within reach. They're policies that have been tested and shown to work ,and together, they could address the affordability crisis head-on and build an economy that actually works for everyone.

Read the full piece.
https://t.co/ZOA7wzxziO

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

Junk fees are on their way out in Illinois.

You’ve probably come across these deceptive fees before.  A “convenience fee” on your concert ticket. A “processing fee” on your hotel booking. A charge that appears at checkout that was never on the price tag.

The average American family loses more than $3,200 a year to these hidden fees. For working families already stretched thin by an affordability crisis, those added costs matter.  It’s the cost of three months of groceries for a family of four. Half a year’s worth of utility payments. A mortgage or rent payment. 

Hidden junk fees make it harder for families to know what they are actually paying and harder to make fair choices about how to spend their money. But for Illinois families, junk fees will be a thing of the past!

Yesterday, legislators in Springfield banned junk fees, and once the governor signs the bill into law, Illinois joins a growing list of states making good on the promise: the price you see should be the price you pay.

[Natalie Foster @nataliefoster]

1/ Policy is downstream of culture. That's something I've believed for a long time — and sitting down with comedian, director, and Emmy and Peabody winner @wkamaubell at Guaranteed Income Now in Austin, TX last week, he gave me a sharper way to say it:

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

“We need to progress beyond analysis paralysis on whether AI comes for jobs and start to pursue 'no regret' policies that not only prepare Americans for a potential AI transition, but respond to the affordability crisis and instability already facing millions of Americans."

ESP Executive Director @taylorjo in @InsidePhilanthr, making the case for "no regret" policies — solutions that address the affordability crisis millions of families are already facing and prepare the country for the AI transition.

The piece explores how philanthropy is responding to AI-driven job displacement and where the field can go further by backing policies that address the broken markets and broken incomes driving the affordability crisis.

Our new brief, "Ideas for Shared Economic Prosperity in the AI Transition", lays out what some of these "no regret" ideas look like in practice: modernizing the tax code, establishing an income floor, and a four-day work week.

Dig into our brief here: https://t.co/TAfMJcEvzR

And read the full piece from Inside Philanthropy here: https://t.co/ugRCKyy0Pa.

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

The Federal Reserve's independence is "a fiscal concern just as much as a democratic one," ESP's @mtkonczal told a House Oversight Committee roundtable on federal spending and the national debt today.

Presidential pressure on the Fed creates a political instability premium, raising rates on the credit cards, mortgages, and auto loans Americans use every day. This erodes trust in the institution that will take a generation to rebuild.

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

🚨HAPPENING NOW: ESP's Senior Director of Policy and Research @mtkonczal is at a House Oversight Committee roundtable, sharing recommendations on federal spending and the national debt.

Watch here: https://t.co/X1kbjzGanC

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

Chanelle Brown is a mother of two, pregnant with her third child, and a POWER-PAC Illinois parent leader with Community Organizing and Family Issues (@COFIOnline). And like forty percent of mothers who give birth in Illinois, she relies on Medicaid.

Having a baby is beautiful. It is also uncertain, vulnerable, and for too many moms, far too expensive. As new federal cuts threaten Medicaid coverage, families are left to absorb costs that no new parent should have to carry alone.

Advocates and policymakers in Springfield are working to change that.
The Newborn Equity Support Transfer (NEST) program would provide expectant mothers on Medicaid with $1,500 in their third trimester and $500 a month for the first six months of a baby’s life. 

Read Chanelle’s letter to the editor in the @Suntimes to hear directly from her about what that support would mean. 

🔗 https://t.co/w2eqnYOGcp

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

$160 and 9 hours. That’s what filing taxes costs the average American, not in taxes, in fees to private companies that have spent decades lobbying to keep the system complicated.

In 2024, Direct File proved it didn’t have to be this way. Free, no middleman, 94% satisfaction. Then it was shut down.

We documented what worked, what we learned, and what comes next in our new report. Our Tax Filing Fellows built a roadmap for how a future administration can bring it back and make it too essential to ever take away again. 

Read the full report: https://t.co/hMhXVunsW0

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

Child care in America is broken — and families and providers are paying the price. 

1 in 3 families spends more on child care than on rent. Childcare workers earn poverty wages and have had their healthcare and SNAP benefits cut. Corporations are raising prices on everything from gas to groceries. This system is unaffordable and unsustainable.

This is why TODAY, we're standing with parents and providers for a #DayWithoutChildCare — demanding public funding that makes care affordable, thriving wages and benefits for providers, and an economy that works for all of us.

Because when child care works, families thrive. Communities thrive. Everyone wins.

Visit https://t.co/dIvYb2wrVh to learn more! 

#ChildcareChangemakers
#DWOCC26
#UniversalChildCare

@communitychange

[Economic Security Project @EconomicSecProj]

10 years ago, the idea of #guaranteedincome was written off as wishful thinking. 

Today, alongside @communitychange, and @Move_UpTogether, we’re hosting the third Guaranteed Income Now convening — bringing together hundreds of organizers, policymakers, researchers, and participants who've turned a once-impossible idea into a movement reshaping how this country thinks about cash, trust, and economic freedom.

What started with two pilots in Stockton, CA and Jackson, MS has grown into a nationwide movement of 230 pilots that puts cash in the hands of 70,000 families.

We're gathering at a moment when the affordability crisis, AI disruption, and climate upheaval are transforming our economy — and when guaranteed income has emerged as one of the most tangible solutions we have to help families navigate this period of deep transition.

The next decade is ours to shape.

#GINow2026

[Natalie Foster @nataliefoster]

1/ Last week, under the shadow of the Michigan state capitol, I gave a keynote address to the hundreds of people gathered to ask a question 250 years in the making: Are we fulfilling the promise of democracy in America?