Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville issued a stark warning on Thursday, emphasizing that future U.S. presidents must tackle the growing affordability issues plaguing young Americans.

Speaking on his “Politics War Room” podcast, Carville highlighted the looming challenge: “Our nation is unprepared for the impact of our generation’s accumulated wealth on younger generations,” he stated.

Carville pointed to alarming trends affecting young people today. “They’re struggling immensely—they can’t buy homes, they can’t afford education. Even the CEO of Ford has reported 5,000 open auto mechanic positions that remain unfilled,” he remarked.

Reflecting on past decisions, Carville noted, “The U.S. placed its bets on becoming a nation of homeowners and college graduates. Initially promising, these strategies are now unraveling.”

He concluded with a call to action for future leaders: “The next president must reconsider these strategies and adopt economic populism to prevent a crisis on the horizon. If proactive measures aren’t taken, the situation will spiral beyond control,” Carville warned.

“And people are starting to get really pissed. They’re starting to figure out what’s happened to their lives.”

Carville is one of several commentators who have sounded the alarm on the issue, as many Democrats have been debating how to appeal to young male voters struggling to enter the middle class in a changing, globalized economy.

In March 2024, months before President Donald Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election, Carville warned Democrats to abandon woke politics, arguing the party was dominated by “too many preachy females,” both of which, he said, were alienating male voters. 

On Thursday, Carville said many younger Americans are “starting to figure out why they don’t have a lot of hope to get a good job or to be able to buy a house. Because, people, once we all bought houses, we put zoning restrictions and God knows what else just to drive the price of the asset up, which our price of our asset goes up, the price of what a young person has to pay goes up too.

“We’ve got to really rethink this whole idea of four-year college and homeownership.”