The progressive world seems to have become accustomed to administering shortage. Regulations, specific aids and a limited distribution of existing resources have defined the agenda for decades. But what would happen if the left left this restrictive mentality behind and bet to literally build an abundant future?
In your recent publication Abundance, Ezra Kleincolumnist of The New York Timesy Derek Thompsoneditor in The AtlanticThey propose exactly that. Both journalists, known for their lucid and informative analysis, launch a direct provocation to American progressivism: abandon the logic that limits growth and begin to imagine how to radically expand social, economic and environmental prosperity.
- “We will not solve unemployment by closing the doors to immigrants”they write. “We will not stop climate change causing the world to starve to grow.”
The book raises a key narrative turn: instead of distributing the current scarcity, Progressive policy should focus on multiplying opportunities, expanding infrastructure, accelerating the energy transition and simplifying bureaucracies that today stop significant advances.
A critic to the left that stopped building
This summarizes Noah Smith: “The basic thesis of this book is that liberalism – or progressivism, or the left, etc. – has forgotten how to build what people want. Every progressive speaks of ‘affordable housing’, but the cities and the Democratic states build so few homes that become unbearable. Every progressive speaks of the need to combat climate change, but environmental regulations have greatly difficult to replace fossils for renewable energy. Many progressives dream of the day the government could achieve great things and publish high -speed imaginary railway net maps that are going through the country; However, various progressive policies have hindered the government’s ability to build infrastructure. ”
Klein and Thompson exemplify this tension with an emblematic case: the high -speed train in California. Despite having been approved more than 15 years ago, it has not yet been completed due to regulatory obstacles, infinite environmental reviews and local opposition. According to the authors, this paralysis illustrates how “the left has forgotten how to build.”
“If the liberals do not want the Americans to resort to the false promise of strong men, They need to offer them the fruits of an effective government“, Write. It is worth clarifying: in the United States, liberal is used to describe progressives.
Another central example is housing. In many cities governed by progressive – as San Francisco or New York– Prices are triggered due to strict regulations and neighborhood resistance to new constructions. The authors align with the Yimby (Yes In My Backyard) movement, which advocates eliminating obstacles to the building of dense and accessible homes. “The affordable housing is not decreed. It is built “they claim.
In terms of energy, the book raises an energetic defense of accelerating the developments of solar, wind and nuclear energy. They criticize that, for bureaucratic or environmental reasons, many green infrastructure projects take decades to be approved. “The enemies of decarbonization are not always fossil fuels”they point out, “sometimes it is the system itself that claims to defend the environment.”
And while that happens, Texasa hyper-republican state known for its fiscal conservatism and their libertarian attitudes towards private companies, surpassed Democratic states as California both in green energy as in affordable housingan irritating result for any progressive that can bear to look at the data.
Abundance as a public policy
Science and innovation also occupy a prominent place. Klein and Thompson denounce that researchers spend up to 40 % of their time in administrative process. They propose to reduce these obstacles, increase public investment and foster sectors such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology or preventive health. “We want a State that not only regulates and imposes rules, but also build, enable and impulse”summary.
The style of the book is clear, direct and full of examples. The narrative is accessible, designed for a broad audience within the progressive spectrum. They do not seek to convince the conservatives, but to redirect the liberal voters disenchanted with the state paralysis and the excess process.
“It is mainly a strong scream against myopic democrats,” says Samuel Moyn in Nyt
Critical and legacy reception possible
Abundance It has been well received in media such as The Guardian, Vox and The Atlantic, although not without nuances. Some critics warn that the proposal could fall into a technocracy without social sensitivity. From more left sectors, it is pointed out that the authors minimize structural inequalities and the role that redistributive policies must play. “Abundance without equity can be abundance for a few,” writes a columnist in Jacobin.
Even so, the impact of the book is clear: it has reactivated a discussion within progressivism about the future course. Continue managing the limits or encourage to imagine a concrete expansion of the possible? “The future does not have to be defined by fear,” the authors close. “It can be defined by abundance”.
The proposal is ambitious, but also realistic. And, in a global context where the challenges of climate change, housing and technology multiply, Abundance It works as a provocative map for those who still believe that progress and justice can go hand in hand.
