The UnPopulist: Abundance Politics
This week I’m in The UnPopulist with an article about the politics of the abundance agenda:
“Abundance” is quickly becoming a buzzword for a new kind of politics in America. The idea, put in the simplest possible terms, is that the United States is beset by a self-imposed commitment to scarcity, and the only way out of this mess is to embrace a politics of plenty. That means building more goods and services—more housing, more infrastructure, more clean energy, more transit systems, more research and innovation, more of everything that is constitutive of social flourishing. Standing in the way of this abundance agenda is a series of formidable obstacles: opposition from the NIMBY movement, regulatory barriers, and a preoccupation with culture war politics. As a result of these anti-growth forces, neither Republicans nor Democrats have shown sufficient interest in building an abundant future for America. Until that changes and at least one of them—whether in power or out of it—takes the imperative for abundance seriously, American society will be plagued by scarcity and stagnation—and, inevitably, political polarization, as more people and causes compete for fewer goods and services.
Read the entire piece over at The UnPopulist!
