Abundance

Abundance is a timely and necessary book—clear-eyed in its diagnosis and genuinely inspiring in its vision. Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson lay out a compelling case that America’s core challenges aren’t mysterious or insurmountable—they stem from deliberate choices, many made with good intentions, that now stand in the way of building a better future. In the first half of the book, I found the discussions of what it looks like to build houses, high speed rail, advanced chips for AI, and the renewable energy infrastructure to be fascinating (and also provoking and challenging); the detailed explanation, with clear examples of regulations that slow progress, helps to make the policy prescription clear.The second half of the book is an equally fascinating exploration of scientific discovery and an indictment of the current funding landscape: It highlights how the current peer review system at NIH often suppresses novelty and deters risk (anyone submitting articles for peer review has experienced this—the veto vote from researchers unwilling to challenge their preconceived notions, but here applied to NIH funding). Plus, NIH tends to fund older scientists (the stats on this, now v. 30 years ago, are shocking). This is a problem, b/c many (most? need to go back and look; there is a stat on this in the book, I just don't remember right now) breakthroughs of the past came from younger scientists. Klein and Thompson make the case for DARPA-style funding across all science—empowering program managers to place bold bets that have historically driven major leaps forward.Crucially, Abundance also confronts the troubling disconnect between American innovation and American production: we invent transformative technologies like solar panels, EV batteries, and computer chips, but we fail to manufacture them at scale due to absurdly high labor costs and (in the CHIPS Act & Pres. Biden’s climate bill) an insane list of irrelevant requirements from companies.I think this is right, from the Amazon synopsis: “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.” I hope it lights a fire under policy-makers.

It was a bit painful to hear how much our generation (baby boomers) solved our problems at the expense of later generations. An excellent read, especially for younger folks who are now seeking the reins of power in the U.S. I guess it remains true that each age must determine its own rules. I feel a bit obsolete after closing the book, but of course, that’s my problem.

Excellent writers. Present very complex situations in terms easliy understood by laymen.

Interesting read to share w others pf like politics

Klein and Thompson wrote a book with the goal of showing progressives how they begin a new era in politics. The focus of the new era is making government build what Americans and the world needs. They believe the government can ignite new discoveries and instigate new positive industries that can bring fourth abundance.

Abundance gives some good insights into our current economic challenges for the USA. The art of Governance is critiqued more than acknowledged.

Explaining why liberal Democrats are no longer capable of effectively implementing their agenda for America even when they were in control both the White House and both houses is Congress.

Thompson and Klein lay a compelling argument that the United States must execute well the inventions it needs to make. The country has a choice. It needs to allow for efficiency to be effective. To reduce the politically motivated roadblocks that hinder technological advancement.

This is a strong argument for how liberal ideas can actually be put into action. It’s a smooth, brisk read. The downside is it’s a bit — or more than a bit — light on depth, more of an extended podcast than an a deep analysis. That may be just what the authors intended, but it cost them a star here.

I have read several books and listened to endless podcasts regarding the best path forward for our Country. I think the Abundance movement is spot on. We have the power to deal with all the current issues threatening us and our humanity. It is time to re-evaluate the traditional assumptions of progressivism and course correct for modern threats like AI, environmental collapse, the housing crisis, and unemployment. I would love to see a new party emerge from this that welcomes everyone.

The message of this book is: let's make it easier for people (and government) to build stuff. Make it easier for developers to build housing to bring prices down (INCLUDING nonprofit low-income housing, which is even more tied up in red tape than market-rate housing). Make it easier to build clean-energy projects to take on global warming. Make it easier for government to subsidize high-risk, high-reward research. By contrast, the dominant faction of the Left is focused on "everything bagel liberalism" (which means drowning projects in public hearings and cost-adding concessions to labor unions and environmental groups) and the dominant faction of the Right seems to be afraid of science and environmentalism.Having said that, this book reads like several magazine articles added together; it is a fast read and is not super-deep. It doesn't really confront the obvious argument: "if its easier to do good stuff won't it be easier to do bad stuff"?

Lincoln said a house decided can’t not survive. Toxic politics are dividing us. The results are obvious. In the sixties we had the best education system and health system in the world. That’s a sad memory. Example, we had the lowest maternal mortality rate in the world. Now we have the highest among advanced nations. Now even Cuba’s inferior system has a lower material death rate than us. How sad.It’s time to wake up American and embrace potential solutions.

Abundance helped me to look at both sides of several important issues. It also provided background, effectively explaining how and why we got into this divisive political mess. I appreciate the authors' efforts to be objective in their analyses. The main message is that we already have all the necessary resources that we need to solve our most pressing problems. That message comes through, but not as poignantly as I had hoped. I will read it again.

This book is really emphatic on getting off fossil fuels, becoming more urban and vegan, and literally turning the countryside into a sea of turbines and solar panels, with nuclear mixed in. All to ward off climate change. Well I tell you what, that is pretty darn disruptive. Is this the abundance America and the world need? Maybe turn down the existential volume a little bit?Lots of good points about over regulation and a reluctance to implement mixed zoning inhibiting housing affordability and infrastructure improvements in the United States.Now I end my review in the same way the book ends. Without any conclusions.

This is an excellent book about how people should change their thought process from scarcity to abundance. Think about what you want and then set a plan to achieve your goal or obtain what you want. Don't just wish for it; be active and overcome the obstacles that keep you from reaching your goals.In the bigger view, say everyone should have free health care, education, or affordable housing. All of those are noble goals. How can you reach each one? I'm not saying throw money at the problem until it is solved. Think about changing the paradigm about the issue or problem. Let's start with health care and education. Ten countries provide both of these benefits. Germany, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, France, Latvia, Sweden, Finland, and Greece have found a way to reach these goals.How do we get affordable housing? What is meant by "affordable?" Does that mean we need to move to the Midwest, where housing costs are very low due to excess vacant housing? Do we need to change policies in locations where there is restrictive zoning? Are interest rates impacting housing costs? How does transportation impact housing costs? How does distance from work impact housing costs?Many things can impact the abundance of "fill in the blank." As a people, we need to think about providing an abundance of "fill in the blank" rather than living with a fear of scarcity.

I found this an interesting read but I thought the title was way off -- better to have called it: MAKING PROGRESS as it spoke to all the red tape and restrictive policies that resulted in over a billion dollars being spent in California with no progress on light rail.It also spoke to the issue of less funding for the really big discoveries in science and how we need to fund the long shots in order to make significant break throughs.I also found it interesting that when there was a major accident on I-95 in Pennsylvania that destroyed an overpass that in declaring an emergency Governor Josh Shapiro was able to side step all the usual delays and got the damaged section of I-95 rebuilt in just TWELVE DAYS instead of the several years the usual process would have taken.How to streamline government so that real progress can take place is what this book is about.

Very worthwhile , interesting , well researched book - "what is scarce that should be abundant? ... What is difficult to build that should be easy?" Great questions that are explored in acute detail, includingcompelling sections on blue state housing. On the housing topic, citing other works while exploring how we in California might build a lot more housing, they point out a gordian knot, a serious political divide between home owners and those renting. Sky-high housing costs, exemplified by a San Francisco appartment project sheparded by a non-profit of the city's current mayor, were cut in half (construction time & construction cost). But this clear path to more abundant city housing is obscured by layers of durable policies ( zoning , local control, legal reviews, delays ), the goal of which is to protect the preeminent assets of the home owner class. Keeping housing SCARCE is the ONLY way to do this.For those whose home is the most valuable asset, any threat to the current market's state - very high price along with very high demand and very low supply - is existential. Members of this class, recognizing their one and only shot at the middle class, a single bet on an asset whose value is a function of scarcity, will vigorously pursue scarcity. And this establishes the political divide ( NIMBY v. YIMBY ). "in a political sense housing policy will divide people , pitting incumbents or owners against newcomers. "I loved reading a thorough explanation of how we got to the current, frustrating, stalemate with blue city housing ( its politics , not economics ). And i understand the author's specific goal in NOT including a solutions list or pathway prescribing a way out. I was left hoping for another book or some background in politics of how to provide abundance AND to indemnify the equity of owners.

Abundance is scintillating, reality based, hopeful, and supremely timely.Klein and Thompson provide an eye opening account of how liberal American governance has evolved over the last 80 years - through accretion of policies and regulations put in place by mostly well-intentioned politicians, activists, and voters - into a system that constrains itself to provide the pro- working class, pro- equity, and pro- environmental outcomes it was intended to produce.Make no mistake though, this is not at all an endorsement of conservative anti-regulatory thinking. This book is a timely, extremely well researched, and fact-based rebuttal of dishonest and clownish conservative efforts to such as DOGE. The author's are supportive of 'big' government and regulation but only when it WORKS. Their key contribution is to ask if the outcomes of progressive policy are in fact progressive, in contrast to the historical tendency of liberals to focus on writing laws that combine as many progressive stipulations as possible without following up to see if the law actually leads to progressive outcomes (or even functions at all e.g., California high speed rail).The authors' focus on actual, real-life, policy outcomes and their attention to nuanced policy tradeoffs that do not cleave cleanly across ideological lines is deeply refreshing. Reading this book feels like being transported back to a much earlier time (pre 2016 at least) when facts were largely shared and debates were largely made in good faith. Yoking that refreshing fact based approach to some of the absolute top issues shared by all Americans (cost of living, homelessness, decaying/insufficient infrastructure) at this particular moment when liberals and Americans in general feel upset with both parties makes this book feel potentially monumental. I tore through the text since the book came out last week, and I cannot stop thinking (and hoping) that this could be a paradigm shift and a blueprint to overcome the childish and low brow culture war politics of the Trump era.PS: I wanted to address the arguments I have seen online from others who see the vision set out in this book as 1) unrealistically hopeful, or 2) dangerously conciliatory to those who want to cut government and regulation across the board, including to the benefit of the fossil fuel and tech industries.My interpretation of the first point is that Klein and Thompson set out the hopeful vision for what America could be not because they think this is realistic or necessarily even possible to achieve, but rather because it is crucial to define your ideal societal outcomes before considering policy changes. We have to have a clear idea of what we are working towards in order to judge if the policies intended to get us there are effective. Their key point is that our metric of success has to be what society looks like, not how much funding was allocated or what stipulations were attached to it.To the second point, I respect other people's interpretation but I personally did not get the impression at all that the author's are advocating for sweeping regulatory cuts and I certainly hope that democratic politicians do not take it this way. Perhaps the disagreement on this point stems from the fact that the main emphasis of the book is really more of a critique of existing policy and it is rather more sparing in terms of specific advocated policy changes. I personally got the impression the authors would say targeted policy changes could make a big difference and are certainly better than trying nothing new. For example: exceptions to NEPA review for solar/wind projects rather than abolition of NEPA.

Generally I've liked Ezra's work and consider him to be an okay advocate for a version of liberal politics that does a solid job of actually reaching the mainstream given his former position at vox and now at the new york times.Essentially here he's just recycling a lot of old ideas from liberal politics that our great grandparents would recognize as being leftover from the new deal era - massive social programs and spending with tight regulation to ensure a level playing field. The 50's and 60's were the golden age of american capitalism as many say, and all of the ideas in this book have a distinctively New Deal democrat kind of vibe to themWhere he falls down though is his utter naivete and general smugness and boring tone.For one, his ideas about a slimmed down work week thanks to AI seem like pure fantasy, utterly devoid from the modern political context. He spends too little time lampooning the nimbys who have been allowed to run roughshod over liberal cities, like they're the PTA version of the old landed gentry. The ideas about climate change are very old hat, and the overall tone of the book is best described as somewhere between podcaster bro from LA and new-age sermon at a non-denomenational church. There are also moments where seemingly related essays from other news sources are kind of shoved in here and they were not integrated well into the book.It's an okay read. I hope more people actually give it a chance and that democrats can start taking up more of these actual ideas to increase everyone's prosperity rather than just being milquetoast liberals that nobody likes. Would say overall it had some trouble keeping my interest but I wanted to learn more.

This book is exceptional. I happened to get my copy a few days early and absolutely tore through it. If you, like many of us on the left, have been left feeling adrift and a bit hopeless in the last few years, you need to read this book.It offers an extremely compelling vision for the future. A vision of the left that works, that builds, that grows, and that can work to create a better future for us all. Klein and Thompson take you on a journey, one that exposes all of the flaws and non-workings of the left over the last few decades. They pull no punches. If what you want is a book that blames 100% of our countries problems on the GOP then go back to your cocoon and leave this book alone. It viscerally exposes the way that liberalism has failed to achieve it's very own goals and objectives. The left didn't die because the GOP killed it, the left withered by virtue of its own poor governance. The book shows the myriad ways that us, and the politicians we vote for, have been the hinderance to change that we all know that our society needs.It's not an easy read - not because the prose is difficult, it's extremely well-written - but because it puts the onus of responsibility for fixing our society back on the ways that we on the left have failed. This moment seems hopeless, but after reading this book I also feel firmly like we have never been better positioned to actually move ourselves forward.And in the end, this book left me with hope. If we are lucky, this book will go down as one of the most importance political texts of the last 100 years. Read it, tell everyone you know to read it, write to every politician you know and tell them to read it as well. Then get to work doing what you can to Build the American Future.