Housing Crisis

Opinion | Scarcity as a Systemic Feature

The United States is facing an existential crisis due to a lack of political imagination and a scarcity mindset, which has led to the criminalization of poverty, homelessness, and immigration, and a reliance on punishment rather than investment in social programs.

Opinion | The Darker Side of Housing Opposition

Opposition to housing construction is often rooted in population alarmism, which treats people as the problem and scarcity as a moral necessity, rather than a policy failure, and ignores the benefits of density and the adaptability of social systems.

Individual Responsibility Is a Convenient Fiction

Systemic failures in housing, health, and employment are often blamed on individuals rather than the systems themselves, which ignores the fact that wages have not kept pace with housing costs, the health system ties care to employment, and jobs are automated, outsourced, or turned into gig work without benefits.