In Abundance (Avid Reader, Mar.), co-authors Thompson, a staff writer for the Atlantic, and Ezra Klein, a New York Times opinion columnist, argue for liberalism’s potential to address problems such as the housing shortage and inadequate health care, which they argue they are the result of unnecessary “chosen scarcity.”
Has your concept of the abundance agenda changed since you first wrote about it for the Atlantic in 2022?
It's expanded, because when I first wrote that article, I was principally thinking about issues such as medical supplies, housing, and energy. Through the reporting for this book, I saw how the principles of abundance could apply more broadly throughout science and technology. As my thinking about abundance became more precise, this project became a very self-critical analysis of how liberals and progressives in blue cities and blue states could get out of their own way. If America is going to do great things, we need effective and competent government to do them. In the book, we point out that Democrats should be able to say, ‘If you elect Democrats they'll make America like California,’ but instead, it’s Republicans who say, "if you elect Democrats, they'll make America like California." Liberals and progressives should want the places that we govern to be the most brilliant advertisements for our movement, rather than be the most compelling anti-advertisements against our movement. That theme really concretized throughout the reporting of the book.
How can the abundance agenda be conveyed to voters who don't care about the intricacies of public policy?
I think regular voters care about housing, and they care about energy prices, and they care about government that works. They care about medicines that extend or save their lives, and the lives of the people that they love. Parts of this book can be detailed and even wonky, but it addresses the concerns that I think are most top of mind for Americans. If you look at surveys about the most important issues in the 2024 election, number one for many people was inflation. That's affordability, and most people's greatest expense is housing. So, there's nothing more critical for Americans right now than housing prices. And we come right out of the gates talking about housing abundance. Our second chapter is about energy. We're talking about the material issues that Americans are already thinking about. We're just asking voters and politicians to think about these issues in a slightly new way.
How can state and local level policymakers push for this agenda when so much of it requires federal money, and must comply with complicated and burdensome federal regulations, for example, for projects such as wind power or new subway extensions?
Many of the policy changes that we're asking for are local, such as adjustments to zoning rules and historical preservation rules that exist at the city level and sometimes at the state level. But the federal government is not forcing San Francisco to be restrictive in its housing policy, nor is it forcing Houston to be accommodating in its housing policy. It's incumbent upon mayors and governors and state legislatures to take responsibility for the rules and customs that have accreted at the local and state level that get in the way of housing and energy abundance.
Are there politicians who have adopted the principles behind the abundance agenda?
I've been very gratified to see how many senators and congresspeople and mayors and governors have adopted the vocabulary of abundance. While most of my conversations with mayors about these topics have been off the record, I can tell you that there are mayors very close to where I live in North Carolina, who, when I offered to give them a signed copy of Abundance, said they wanted to proudly display it on their desk because they knew there were so many people in the office and coming through for meetings that wanted to be inspired by exactly this kind of message.
What about people’s continuing support for President Trump?
The first thing that's important to say is that liberals and progressives need to take seriously that tens of millions of Americans sincerely like what Donald Trump is doing. At the same time, I think you only need to look at Trump's polling to see how quickly his majoritarian support is eroding. I would suspect that by the time our book tour is wrapping up in April and early May, Trump will be underwater in approval, just as he was throughout his first presidency. It might happen even faster this time around. While I think it's very important to take Trump's popularity seriously as a political phenomenon, I expect that he's going to do a countless number of things that will be hideously unpopular in the next four months, much less the next four years, and Democrats should be ready to run against those things while also, and this is probably the most important point, not just presenting voters with a negative vision of government. It's going to be very easy to criticize Donald Trump. It's going to be harder to put forward a positive vision of what America should and will look like if Democrats are in power. I think this book offers a number of ways in which we can actually build a richer, more abundant future if we find ways to get out of our own way.
