Spectacular
Offers a comprehensive indictment of the current problems and a clear path forward
Klein and Thompson usher in a mood shift. They inspire hope and enlarge the imagination. David Brooks, The New York Times
From bestselling authors and journalistic titans Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance is a once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to renew a politics of plenty, face up to the failures of liberal governance, and abandon the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life.
To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, America has a national housing crisis. After years of limiting immigration, we dont have enough workers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we havent built anything close to the clean-energy infrastructure we need. Ambitious public projects are finished late and over budgetif they are ever finished at all. The crisis thats clicking into focus now has been building for decadesbecause we havent been building enough.
Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryears villains. Rather, one generations solutions have become the next generations problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the problems of the 1970s often prevent urban-density and green-energy projects that would help solve the problems of the 2020s. Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially. In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished.
Progress requires facing up to the institutions in life that are not working as they need to. It means, for liberals, recognizing when the government is failing. It means, for conservatives, recognizing when the government is needed. In a book exploring how we can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and propose a path toward a politics of abundance.
