Jerusalem Demsas
American journalist; founder and editor-in-chief of The Argument, a magazine launched in 2025. Previously a staff writer at Vox and The Atlantic, where she wrote about housing and hosted the Good on Paper podcast; author of On the Housing Crisis (2024).
Jerusalem Demsas did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Our reading
The problem with modern solitude is the negative and extremist nature of the content being consumed.
Their wordsThe problem is not that we're alone a few more hours a week than we used to be; it's that for hours and hours a day, whether we have vibrant social lives or not, we are subject to an unending stream of negativity and extremism.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsBut interventions that seek to increase socialization without changing how much bleak social media content we consume are unlikely to do very much about our broader dysfunctions.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 1 day earlier
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Their wordsthe politics of interest groups are an important barrier to overcome the U.S.' housing supply crisis.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
The era of cheap borrowing has ended, making large-scale government housing investments difficult.
Their wordsThe era of cheap borrowing has come to an end. If the government wants to make large capital investments or spin up brand-new programs, it will have to either raise a lot of taxes (in the middle of a de facto tax revolt) or else borrow even more money, putting existing programs like Medicare or Social Security at risk.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsHaving private actors take on this risk themselves is actually better than expecting the government to build anywhere from 4 million to 20 million new homes.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 6 days earlier
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Their wordsWe discovered a strong correlation between elites and "people who hold positions I don't like."
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsThere are many ways to interpret these findings all together, but my interpretation is that hostility to elites only explains a small part of electoral outcomes.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 days earlier
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Their wordsBut it's also not an accident that a community with enough coercive power to punish someone for charging a lot for nails ends up using that coercive power in other realms of life as well.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBut a large part of our disagreement comes from the fact that different people, reasoning well, often end up believing very different things.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBut where I depart from Murphy's call for meaning-making is that politics isn't where people should find meaning.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 weeks earlier
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Their wordsIt is an irresponsible public message to treat a leveraged, nondiversified, illiquid asset as the universally correct foundation for personal financial security.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsAs a result, instead of an asset that's there for you when other things are going poorly, a home is an asset that is likely to perform poorly exactly when you need it not to.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsOwning a home makes it much harder to leave your region if you need to. When you lose your job - or just want a new one - homeownership acts as a drag.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordsThere is no unified billionaire class that decides elections and gets its way whenever it throws money around.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsUsually, they are not purchasing beliefs, rather they are amplifying the voices of people who they like.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsAnd when I consider the structure of power in American politics, it often cleaves along lines that have nothing to do with being a billionaire.
↗The Opening Argumenttheargumentmag.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 weeks earlier
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Their wordsThe YIMBY movement has transformed American housing politics for the better.
↗Why is it so hard for liberals to take the W?theargumentmag.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
The most difficult barrier to housing growth is that decision-making is heavily decentralized.
Their wordsThe most difficult barrier to growth is that decision-making on housing is heavily decentralized, so even if you do get state action, localities have infinite tools at their disposal to delay implementation or create an inhospitable environment for developers.
↗Why is it so hard for liberals to take the W?theargumentmag.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThe norms that guard relentlessly against overconfidence don't actually help with the opposite problem of excessive doubt. In fact, they can actually hurt, causing people to end up underweighting a conclusion that is actually true.
↗Why is it so hard for liberals to take the W?theargumentmag.com 3rd of 3 in this piece