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Abundance
Abundance | Derek Thompson, Ezra Klein
5 posts | 7 read | 2 reading | 5 to read
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 don't have enough workers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven't built anything close to the clean-energy infrastructure we need. Ambitious public projects are finished late and over budget--if they are ever finished at all. The crisis that's clicking into focus now has been building for decades--because we haven't been building enough. Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear's villains. Rather, one generation's solutions have become the next gener-ation's 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 pre-serves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and propose a path toward a politics of abundance. At a time when movements of scarcity are gaining power in country after country, this is an answer that meets the challenges of the moment while grappling honestly with the fury so many rightfully feel.
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Floresj
Abundance | Derek Thompson, Ezra Klein
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A series of essays about what the authors term as abundance. I disagree with the title- I think it could have been tradeoffs or unintended inefficiencies. Most of the writing focuses on good intentions of liberal policies that cause inability to be nimble and quick to build, invent, deploy.

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mjtwo
Abundance | Derek Thompson, Ezra Klein
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1-4 Sep 25 (audiobook)
Obama summer reading list
I seem to be struggling with audiobooks at the moment, although I was more engaged with this than the books I listened to either side of it.
I enjoyed Klein‘s earlier work about the polarisation of politics. In this book, he partners with Derek Thompson to make the argument that the left side of politics has forgotten how to build things that people want. We need to adopt an abundance mindset.

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Chelsea.Poole
Abundance | Derek Thompson, Ezra Klein
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So much of this book made a ton of sense. We should be able to access affordable clean energy, there should be enough housing, we should have access to healthcare—why is it so difficult for one of the wealthiest nations (the US) to manage these things? Abundance argues that our government places regulations that are too strict on many industries/organizations that limit progress and ultimately disadvantage citizens.

AnnCrystal 🤩🌸💝. 4mo
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ravenlee
Abundance | Derek Thompson, Ezra Klein
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I wasn‘t sure at first, but this was a very interesting and thought-provoking read. Why is there such scarcity in America? In housing, clean energy, and tech development (not innovation, but the follow-up), Klein and Thompson posit that yesterday‘s policies hinder today‘s and tomorrow‘s progress. I‘d like to see some more concrete examples of how to solve these problems, especially at a grassroots level, but it‘s worth a read regardless.

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Addison_Reads
Abundance | Derek Thompson, Ezra Klein
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While I may not agree with everything in this book, I found it to be insightful and informative. The authors address policies from the past that have led to our current political crisis. I would have liked some more concrete examples of how to implement the change they talked about, but overall, this left me with a lot to think about, in a good way, which is something I need more of these days because all the news does is depress me.

Chrissyreadit I have been wondering about this book. I like Ezra Klein in general. 6mo
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