Abundance Audiobook By Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson cover art

Abundance

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Abundance

By: Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson
Narrated by: Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025 • NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2025 • KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOKS OF 2025 • NPR BOOKS WE LOVE 2025

“A must-read for progressives who want a blueprint for reforming government so it can deliver for working people.” —Barack Obama • “A terrific book...Powerful and persuasive.” —Fareed Zakaria • “Spectacular…Offers a comprehensive indictment of the current problems and a clear path forward…Klein and Thompson usher in a mood shift. They inspire hope and enlarge the imagination.” —David Brooks, The New York Times

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 gener­ation’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 pre­serves 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. Best of 2025 Economics Politics & Government Public Policy Liberalism Thought-Provoking Government Taxation Capitalism
Thought-provoking Framework • Compelling Vision • Expressive Voice • Well-researched Analysis • Fresh Perspectives

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Ezra Klein begins by clearly and cogently recapping recent political history and demonstrating how the Dems failed see what they ought to have done to maintain any form of leadership in the US, by mistaking ideals for action. He then gives many examples of projects which have failed, and why. Thompson continues by giving concrete examples of projects which succeeded and why they did. The reader is left to imagine what might happen next. No analysis is offered regarding the appalling retrograde actions being taken by the Trump-Musk destruction machine.

Advice to the Democratic Party from Klein & Thompson

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I found the book quite interesting but the authors somewhat naive in their approach. As with all Utopian visions, and intrinsic to their inevitable downfalls, the perennial wrench of human nature tossed into the gears of their vision is never addressed. What to do about those people who just wont get onboard or who wish to sail in a different direction, (as is true in any free society), is never addressed. Neither are the inevitable unintended consequences of government policies, creating one problem or many problems in a clumsy attempt to solve another. Contrary to the authors’ vision, there are no real “solutions” to societal problems. There are ultimately only trade offs.

Utopian fantasy but worth a listen

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Little more than making the case that government has different incentives than the private sector, which benefits from those governmental programs. This is a book that didn’t need to be written or if it did, it needed to be written and published eighteen months earlier.

Four hours of government program infomercial

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It’s well written and makes some good points. But to have a major section on housing and suggest that market supply will solve homelessness is misleading. It will help but not deal with the fundamental need to subsidize low income renters. There are also bad takes like suggesting masks aren’t helpful at fighting COVID. This is just anti science nonsense.

Good on some things but not others. And gets some facts wrong.

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Thank you for this book! Thank you, too, for showing the cracks in both political parties as well as some ways to think about mending those cracks.

Hope

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