Abundance is having a moment. Microsoft is investing in nuclear energy. Gavin Newsom axed environmental review for new housing in California city centers in an effort to make it easier to build more and different types of housing (and perhaps make it easier to get elected in a national race). This “more is more” outlook has a libertarian and a liberal strain. While libertarians emphasize market forces and liberals emphasize government investment, both advocate a society of builders. Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson make a pitch for the latter variety in their book, Abundance, wherein they highlight a vision for a liberal “supply-side” economics. Though the authors present an effective vision of housing policy reform and a refreshingly positive political vision for the liberal party in its brief 222 pages, they overlook key economic realities that would unlock abundance. They also misdiagnose the practical barriers to getting the left to latch onto this vision.
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