Free for Forum Members!
Wednesday, February 25, 2026
7:00 - 8:30 P.M. in Los Altos, CA
In-person Attendance Only
Limited seating (35 participants)
If you’re interested but not yet a Liberty Forum member, please visit the Membership page to join!
Q1 2026
The Housing Crisis: How California Priced Out the American Dream
Join us for the second meeting of the Liberty Forum Book Club — our quarterly discussion series exploring liberty-focused topics through diverse perspectives and critical thinking.
This quarter, we examine California's housing crisis. How did the state that once symbolized opportunity become unaffordable to the people who built it?
For Silicon Valley residents, this isn't abstract policy debate — it's our daily reality. Through careful reading and principled discussion, we'll explore the relationship between government intervention, property rights, and humanity flourishing.
Choose your reading:
Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America by Conor Dougherty (2020)
An award-winning investigation into California's housing crisis through human stories from all sides. A practical critique of higher education's economic and intellectual value.
ORSan Fran-Sicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities by Michael Shellenberger (2021)
Hard-hitting critique of progressive policies on homelessness and drug addiction arguing that compassion without accountability enabled the crisis.
Sample Discussion Questions:
How do we balance property owners' rights with others' freedoms to build and live where they want?
When does government intervention help versus harm the people it claims to serve?
What does California's housing crisis reveal as fundamental tensions between competing liberty principals?
What might housing policy look like if we designed it around maximum individual freedom?
Supplemental Articles:
New study shows that deregulation is not the answer to the affordable housing crisis. Tim Redmond. 20 January 2026. 48 Hills.
Trump proposes ban on corporate purchases of single-family housing. 7 January 2026. AllSides.
Justice department sues RealPage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms millions of American renters. 23 August 2024. United States Department of Justice Archives.
San Francisco passes first-in-nation municipal ban on rent-fixing software. 30 July 2024. American Economic Liberties Project.
Interested in joining the Liberty Forum Book Club?
If you’re interested but not yet a Liberty Forum member, please visit the Membership page to join!