What abundance means to me

The factional stakes of two smart, mild-mannered new books

Last fall, I was asked to host a discussion with Derek Thompson about his ongoing work with Ezra Klein on the subject of abundance.

While we were on stage, I mentioned to Derek that he and Ezra are two of the nicest people working in journalism,¹ which is great — except that I worried they couldn’t stomach the intra-party contentiousness that a true abundance agenda would require. And as Derek was answering the question, a bunch of Climate Defiance protesters took the stage to protest me (not Derek) for what I thought wasn’t even one of my hottest takes, just an argument that Kamala Harris was correct on the merits to oppose a fracking ban.

That really summed up my high-level thoughts on the contentiousness issue.

When I read the galleys, my fear was that the book would be too gently persuasive, and that Democrats would respond by just adding “abundance” to the million-item checklist of things they’re supposed to say they’re for, rather than seeing the book’s argument as a call for real change.

But the reaction to the book has been encouraging in this regard. The Washington Monthly, for example, launched a multi-article fusillade (1, 2, 3, 4) against Abundance and Marc Dunkelman’s also-excellent new book Why Nothing Works. Clearly, someone has noticed that these are big ideas that risk upsetting the apple cart, that offer Democrats an alternative to the Biden/Warren synthesis underwritten by the Hewlett Foundation (the Monthly is one of their many grantees in progressive media).

So having read the critiques, I am more enthusiastic about these books than ever. Their theses are not only correct, they’re more dangerous than I originally thought.

What follows is not really a review. There are a thousand roads to abundance, and if you want to know what abundance-themed book I’d have written, read “One Billion Americans.” I’ll just say I think these are good books and I hope they are widely read and influential. Instead, this piece is about what abundance means to me, and what I think critics get wrong.