For years, economic thinkers on the left pushed for more government spending and urged the Federal Reserve to be less paranoid about inflation, with the goal of driving down unemployment as low as possible.

Higher wages, higher growth, higher productivity. Win-win-win.

There’s a chance we’re headed down that exact path, and yet, Americans don’t seem very enthused.

“There’s a healthy amount of fear and introspection happening among the architects of these efforts that folks aren’t necessarily buying what we’re selling,” one prominent progressive policy advocate told me. “And folks are under some pressure about it, too.”

“What are we doing here if we’re not building an economy that people like?”

Privately, some administration officials worry that it’s not just reelection that’s at stake, but also the possibility that policymakers won’t be as forceful whenever the next recession comes, for fear of stoking prices. That’s even as officials have become more confident that their approach was the right one.

And Americans’ skepticism about the economy is reasonable. Rent and grocery prices are both up roughly 20 percent in the last three years. Electricity is up more than 25 percent. While wage hikes have been outpacing cost increases for the past year and a half, they still fall short over the course of Biden’s presidency. And the lack of affordable housing in particular looms as a painful reality for millions of Americans.

So, as the election looms in November, the Biden administration and its allies hope that people get used to the new higher price levels and that positive economic trends, like wages growing faster than prices, last long enough to win over voters.