Abundance by Ezra Klein

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ezra Klein, with Derek Thompson, has written the most important book of the year that is targeted at Democrats but should be read by all. Klein has the most fascinating and informative podcast (IMO) on the air today. The high quality comes from the diverse viewpoints brought onto the show, with many people of the right coming on to discuss the theory of the case from their perspective. Klein has not been afraid to call out what must surely be considered political malpractice by the Democratic Party where he believes it exists. Bit that is a story for another day.

I had written about, in a blog post, a column Klein had written for the New York Times in May of 2022 called “What America Needs is a Liberalism That Builds.” This book builds on that column, bringing forth the proposition that much of the regulation and burden that has been layered into American governance is now creating governmental dysfunction. Much of this dysfunction of governance is in blue states, which Klein acknowledges. In that column Klein references a talk on industrial policy by Brian Deese, which gives us a flavor for the main thesis of the book.

“The first step is admitting you have a problem, and Deese, to his credit, did exactly that. “A modern American industrial strategy needs to demonstrate that America can build — fast, as we’ve done before, and fairly, as we’ve sometimes failed to do,” he said.
He noted that the Empire State Building was constructed in just over a year. We are richer than we were then, and our technology far outpaces what was available in 1930. And yet does anyone seriously believe such a project would take a year today?
“We need to unpack the many constraints that cause America to lag other major countries — including those with strong labor, environmental and historical protections — in delivering infrastructure on budget and on time,” Deese continued.”

Ezra Klein What America Needs Is a Liberalism That Builds New York Times May 29, 2022

On budget, and on time. What a thought.

Let us begin with more on the central tenets of the book. Klein and Thompson mention California as a great state in so many ways, including the fact that as a stand alone economy it would be the fifth largest GDP in the world. But there is more to that story.

“Liberals should be able to say: Vote for us and we will govern the country the way we govern California. Instead, conservatives are able to say: Vote for them, and they will govern the country the way they govern California! California has spent decades trying and failing to build high-speed rail. It has the worst homelessness problem in the country. It has the worst housing affordability problem in the country. It trails only Hawaii and Massachusetts in its cost of living. As a result it is losing hundreds of thousands of people every year to Texas and Arizona. What has gone wrong?

Klein, Ezra, Thompson, Derek: Abundance pg. 17

That loss of population will have major, and highly negative, ramifications for Democrats in 2030. But I digress. As we digest the political victory of Donald Trump the authors point to another book that makes a point central to this book:

“…the political scientists William Howell and Terry Moe write that ‘populists don’t just feed on socioeconomic discontent. They feed on ineffective government-and their great appeal is that they claim to replace it with a government that is effective through their own autocratic power.’”

Klein, Ezra, Thompson, Derek: Abundance pg. 17

The authors have laid out some of the consequences of ineffective governance. What examples do they cite? Of course housing is a big one, with housing restrictions bringing down supply and driving up price, especially in cities that have been engines of growth. Some eye-popping statistics, and a look at how zoning rules have morphed into an anti-growth tool in so many localities. The authors look at a tale of two cities in California: Lakewood and Petaluma. They cite the massive housing growth of Lakewood to accommodate returning veterans after the war as contrasted with the “Petaluma Plan” that imposed a growth cap of 500 new housing units annually. This anti-growth zoning took hold in California, with the results you might expect:

“Today, California is more Petaluma than Lakewood. In the 1950s and 1960s, California routinely built more than 200,000 homes each year. Since 2007, California has never once permitted more than 150,000 new homes. In Los Angeles, fewer homes were built in the seventies than in the sixties, fewer in the eighties than in the seventies, and fewer in the nineties than in the eighties, even as the cities overall population grew.”

Klein, Ezra, Thompson, Derek: Abundance pg. 37

Of course this trend is not limited to California. Similar restrictions, as well as other zoning restrictions, such as limiting development to large single family parcels, has managed to create scarcity and drive up housing pricing. The housing piece is so much more than simply the scarcity of supply. The authors look at the impact of zoning and regulation on “construction productivity” with some great insight.

The poster child for the results of ineffectual governance is the total failure of the Los Angeles to San Francisco high speed rail line. While it has not formally collapsed it is at a standstill. Originally approved by California voters in 2008 at an estimated cost of $33 billion, with completion projected by 2020, that project received federal funds to go along with the state funding. It had, at that time, strong federal political support from the Obama Administration. The authors point out that the environmental reviews for this project started in 2012, and as of 2024 were still ongoing. That fact alone is an outrage, and part and parcel of the ongoing problem of how well intentioned regulations have simply morphed into project killers. The authors look at the cost of rail, as well as the many legal impediments to construction.

“It costs about $609 million to build a kilometer (about 0.6 miles) of rail here. Germany builds a kilometer of rail for $384 million. Canada gets it done for $295 million. Japan clocks in at $267 million. Portugal is the cheapest country in the database, at $96 million. All those countries build more tunnels than we do.”

Klein, Ezra, Thompson, Derek: Abundance pg. 77

The authors move into multiple other areas where fossilization and self built obstacles prevent the achievement of even a modicum of progress in government. They highlight science and energy as two other areas where the United States is just not achieving results that will keep us globally competitive. As men of the left they understand and empathize with subsidies but recognize subsidizing a commodity that is scarce does not truly solve the problem. (See housing) They advocate for policies that will bring “abundance” to key sectors of the economy by removing obstacles that we, in many cases Democrats, have placed in the way.

“The word ‘abundance’ speaks of a cornucopia, all good things for everybody. But the world of abundance has trade-offs, and trade-offs require choices. Liberals spent decades working, at every level of government and society, to make it harder to build recklessly. They got used to crafting coalitions and legislation that gave everyone a bit of what they wanted, even if it meant the final product was astonishingly expensive, or slow to construct, or perhaps never found its way to completion at all. To unmake this machine will be painful. It will require questioning treasured nostrums and splitting old alliances.”

Klein, Ezra, Thompson, Derek: Abundance pg. 213

Finally, for Democrats wondering how the Biden legislative record did not have more of a positive impact on voters there is this:

“A difficulty that Biden and Harris had in trying to run on their record in 2024 was that few communities were yet seeing benefit from all this construction their policies were meant to spark. The infrastructure bill, for instance, included $7.5 billion to build a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations; by March 2024-more than two years after the bill was passed-only seven new chargers were up and running”

Klein, Ezra, Thompson, Derek: Abundance pg. 213

Passing legislation is not enough. Building out of the benefits that flow from the legislation is how you impact voters.

The authors have taken some heavy incoming from the left, outraged that someone might point out that we cannot seem to build key infrastructure as fast as we did in the 1950’s. They apparently would like to keep losing elections, and losing the global economic race with China. The Marc Dunkelman book (review coming), as well as this one, cites the activities of Robert Moses as a driving force in creating the excess regulation held up as needing reform. It should be noted that Moses used some methods that were pretty awful, but not everything he did was wrong. He built some magnificent infrastructure.

A vitally important book, well worth a read. The authors have in fact created a bit of a firestorm nationally in Democratic Party circles. It is a debate long overdue.




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