If you only read the headlines, you’d think the American dream is officially out of reach. Starter homes cost more than $1 million. Summer electric bills are approaching $800. Families are struggling to keep up.
But Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck argues that the story being sold to Americans is incomplete.
“As of today, there are 242 cities in this country where the typical starter home, the first rung, the one that’s supposed to be for the beginners, costs a million or more dollars,” Glenn explains.
“By the way, before the pandemic, that number was not 242. It was 80. So in five years, it nearly tripled,” he adds.
California has the most cities with these high-priced “starter” homes, while New York and New Jersey aren’t far behind.
But it’s not just housing costs that are up — utilities are too.
“Americans are projected to spend almost $800 on electricity just getting through this summer, June through September. That’s up more than 10% from last year,” Glenn says.
“Now, the pros at the National Energy Assistance Directors Association will tell you it’s a stack of things all landing at once — hotter summers, more air conditioning, an aging grid that needs hundreds of billions in upgrades, the new AI data centers that everybody loves to point at, and inflation,” he explains.
“Monthly bills are up 23% since 2019. And right now, 1 in 6 Americans, 1 in 6 households, is behind on the utility bill. Arizona is getting hit the hardest. Then it’s Connecticut, Washington state. North Dakota has it the easiest,” he continues.
However, Glenn points out that these are just headlines — and as per usual, the mainstream media is not telling the whole story.
“If you lose the truth, the next thing you lose is hope. … A lot of Americans have lost both. So, let me give you the truth under the headline because the truth is where you’re going to find hope,” Glenn says.
“Let’s start with a million-dollar house. That number is real. It’s not your number. Because buried in the same report is the figure that nobody put in the story or the headline: The typical starter home in America is worth 198,649,” he continues.
“Now, that is still a lot of money, but it’s not $1 million. It’s under $200,000. Those 242 terrifying cities are all clustered where? On the expensive coastlines,” he adds.
As for the electricity bill, Glenn says, “if you are one of the 1 in 6, the why is not warming or cooling your house. Knowing the AI data centers are only part of the problem doesn’t lower the number on that envelope that you’re avoiding now because you can’t pay it.”
He points out that “every bit of wire” in our electric grid “was built by a past generation.”
“The same generation, one generation, electrified a continent that had been dark since the beginning of time. One generation. Abundance was a choice that we made. … And that means we can make that choice again,” he says.
“You’re not in checkmate. You’re not. You’re being told in stories like this about averages,” he continues, adding, “and you don’t live in an average.”
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