Abundance is a non-fiction book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson published by Avid Reader Press in March 2025. The book examines the reasons behind the lack of progress on ambitious projects in the United States, including those related to affordable housing, infrastructure, and climate change. The authors argue that the regulatory environment in many liberal cities, while well intentioned, stymies development. Wealthy interests often co-opt progressive policies, such as local zoning laws, to prevent construction. Klein and Thompson argue for an Abundance Agenda that better manages the tradeoffs between regulations and social advancement.
At the time of the book’s publication, Ezra Klein worked as a columnist for The New York Times, while Derek Thompson held a position as staff writer for The Atlantic.[1] The book originated from an essay published by Thompson in The Atlantic in January 2022.[2] In an interview, the two authors talked about their differing perspective to writing Abundance. Thompson stated that he felt "more comfortable starting with economics or technology", while Ezra brought a viewpoint "versed in modern politics and political history".[2]
Reception
In The New Yorker, Benjamin Wallace-Well called Abundance a "fair-minded book" that "recognizes some of the trade-offs that come with redesigning government for dynamism".[3]
In Slate, Henry Grabar praised the book for being "unabashed in synthesizing good ideas", arguing that Klein and Thompson offer a much needed "vision of a 'liberalism that builds', a can-do antidote to blue-state malaise", while also remarking that the books contains remarkably little criticism of the current Republican-led administration.[4]
In Washington Monthly, Zephyr Teachout was critical of the authors' focus on rolling back zoning restrictions, specifically their support for reforming the National Institutes of Health and the National Environmental Policy Act, as a means to increase housing supply, while being unclear regarding the specifics of such reforms, as well as centering their arguments primarily on only a few large american cities, while underestimating the negative effects of monopolization in the US economy at large.[5] She states that:
[I]t would be very easy to take their critique as a muffled call for deregulation writ large; if they are not careful, the ambiguity could be used by big financial interests to make abundance a bible for a Ronald Reagan–style deregulatory juggernaut.[5]
References
↑ "21 Books Coming in March". The New York Times. February 28, 2025. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved March 17, 2025. The New York Times columnist Ezra Klein and the Atlantic writer Derek Thompson want you to hold space to dream about utopia.
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