Abundance: A Primer
The abundance movement is gaining momentum across America's political landscape.
For those new to the idea, abundance is an approach to identify and dismantle self-imposed scarcity. It offers solutions for some of the most pressing challenges facing our country: building more housing, investing in clean energy, innovating in science and technology, and making government work better for everyone. This framework promotes both high-return public investments and smart deregulatory reform — two tools usually stuck in different partisan silos.
Beyond these basics, abundance comes in many flavors. Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s groundbreaking new book Abundance adds intellectual firepower to the growing coalition on the left who view liberal governance as ineffective. To them, abundance reclaims the original meaning of progressive — driving tangible, forward-looking solutions that improve people's lives.
But this movement isn’t just about the left critiquing the left. Many market-oriented leaders on the right have broken from conservatives who espouse a zero-sum mentality, recognizing that a limited yet effective federal government can support fast and inclusive growth.
This is where Inclusive Abundance comes in. We are working to advance these ideas across the ideological spectrum and forge stronger ties between the abundance factions in both parties.
To that end, this primer brings together a wide variety of intellectual perspectives. It offers foundational explanations of the abundance framework as well as targeted deep dives into areas where this thinking can have the greatest impact: government effectiveness, housing, energy, and innovation.
The reading list thus reflects diverse points of view — from The Atlantic’s Jerusalem Demsas to the American Enterprise Institute’s James Pethokoukis — on what abundance is and can be. Happy reading.
Abundance (General)
What is Abundance? (Derek Kaufman / Inclusive Abundance)
The Economic Mistake the Left Is Finally Confronting (Ezra Klein)
A Simple Plan to Solve All of America’s Problems (Derek Thompson)
The Political Fight of the Century (Derek Thompson)
There Is a Liberal Answer to the Trump-Musk Wrecking Ball (Ezra Klein)
Abundance (Ezra Klein / Derek Thompson)
What is the Abundance Agenda and what does it mean for you? (James Pethokoukis / Stand Together)
How About an Up Wing America? (James Pethokoukis)
Abundance Is About More Than Stuff (Eileen Norcross & David Masci / Discourse)
The Rise of the Abundance Faction (Robert Saldin & Steve Teles / Niskanen Center)
The Politics of Abundance (Matthew Ygleias)
Cost Disease Socialism (Sam Hammond et al. / Niskanen Center)
Faster Growth, Fairer Growth: Policies for a High Road, High-Performance Economy (Sam Hammond & Brink Lindsey / Niskanen Center)
An Abundance Agenda Can Restore Our Economy, Revitalize Our Society, and Bring Our Country Together (Veronique de Rugy)
The Abundance Agenda Promises Everything to Everyone All at Once (Christian Britschgi)
How Progressives Froze the American Dream / Stuck (Yoni Appelbaum)
How Progressives Broke the Government / Why Nothing Works (Marc Dunkelman)
Escape from Quicksand: A New Framework for Modernizing America / Everyday Freedom (Philip K. Howard)
Innovation
Progress is a Policy Choice (Alec Stapp and Caleb Watney)
We Need a New Science of Progress (Tyler Cowen & Patrick Collison)
America Is Running Out of New Ideas (Derek Thompson)
How place-based policies can help American workers thrive (Tim Bartik)
How to Build the Future of AI in the United States (Tim Fist & Arnab Datta / Institute for Progress)
Exceptional by Design: How to Fix High-Skilled Immigration to Maximize American Interests (Adam Ozimek et al.)
The Gift of Global Talent: Innovation Policy and the Economy (William R. Kerr)
Government Effectiveness
Culture Eats Policy: Why Government Implementation Often Fails / Recoding America (Jennifer Pahlka)
How to Fix the Government (Nicholas Bagley)
The Procedure Fetish (Nicholas Bagley)
State Capacity Libertarianism (Tyler Cowen)
State Capacity: What Is It, How We Lost It, and How to Get It Back (Brink Lindsey / Niskanen Center)
An Efficiency Agenda for the Executive Branch (Sam Hammond & Thomas Hochman / Foundation for American Innovation)
Holding Poor Performers Accountable Can Lead to Better Government (Jenny Mattingley)
How Bureaucracy Is Breaking Government (Santi Ruiz et al. / Institute for Progress)
The Five Things President Trump Should Do on Day One (Santi Ruiz)
Blue Cities Must Be Fixed (Aaron Carr)
The Governance of American Innovation: Restoring Congress’s Role (Zach Graves)
Energy
Energy Superabundance (Eli Dourado & Austin Vernon)
Why America Doesn’t Build (Jerusalem Demsas)
Understanding NEPA Litigation (Nikki Chiappa et al. / The Breakthrough Institute)
The Ecomodernist Manifesto (Ted Nordhaus et al. / The Breakthrough Institute)
It’s Not Just NEPA: Reforming Environmental Permitting (Thomas Hochman)
Housing
An Agenda for Abundant Housing (Alex Armlovich & Andrew Justus / Niskanen Center)
Does Building New Housing Cause Gentrification? (Sarah Holder)
The YIMBYs Won Over the Democrats (Jerusalem Demsas)
SF’s Housing Crisis Explained (Kim-Mai Cutler)
How Can Government Make Housing More Affordable? (Jenny Schuetz)
The Housing Theory of Everything (John Myers et al.)
How Housing Costs Drive Levels of Homelessness (Alex Horowitz et al.)
Everything You Think You Know About Homelessness is Wrong (Noah Smith)