93: Ezra Klein’s Abundance Delusion
Just say “NO.” Some approaches to “abundance” are healthy, but one brand of abundance that’s been capturing the cultural moment lately is a recipe for a dead planet. Dave and Stephanie assess key points made by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their book, Abundance. The result, a sound thrashing.
The authors believe “America needs to build and invent more of the things it needs.” They advocate eliminating regulatory barriers that are keeping us from getting more, faster. Conservation and environmental stewardship are not on the agenda.
Klein is a columnist for The New York Times and host of The Ezra Klein Show. Derek is a writer at The Atlantic and host of the Plain English podcast. They lean left, so many are suggesting the Democratic party should adopt “the abundance agenda” as it remakes itself in the wake of 2024 electoral defeat. In this episode, we make the case against that. We’re not alone. Among the links we provide below are some additional thoughtful and articulate critiques of the book and agenda.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Economic Wisdom from the Natural World: The Serviceberry – episode 92 of the GrowthBusters podcast
Abundance – by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
The Elite’s Fixation with Low Birth Rates – Overshoot podcast episode with Samuel Miller McDonald
An Abundance of Concrete – by Ben Goldfarb
Colorado Matters episode with Ben Goldfarb
Bezos: We’re Going to Need Another Planet – episode 89 of the GrowthBusters podcast
On Abundance – by The Last Farm (Note: a good critique of “abundance” but a narrow solution. It’s a good part of the solution, but not complete.)
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On the GrowthBusters podcast, we come to terms with the limits to growth, explore the joy of sustainable living, and provide a recovery program from our society’s growth addiction (economic/consumption and population). This podcast is part of the GrowthBusters project to raise awareness of overshoot and end our culture’s obsession with, and pursuit of, growth.
Dave Gardner directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which Stanford Biologist Paul Ehrlich declared “could be the most important film ever made.” Co-host, and self-described “energy nerd,” Stephanie Gardner has degrees in Environmental Studies and Environmental Law & Policy.
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Peter Kelly
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Why over regulation? It is a cause of so many problems? Or is it a sign of diminishing marginal returns on increasing complexity. Regulations may be both excessive and necessary, being an effect rather then a cause of problems. It is useful to consider Isaac Asimov’s bathroom analogy. Consider a 2 bedroom apartment and 2 bathrooms. 2 people live in this apartment. Each can occupy their bathroom whenever they want, can stay in the bathroom for as long as they want and do whatever they want in the bathroom. Each person has “freedom of the bathroom”. It’s in the apartment’s constitution. Then person number 3 moves in and no matter how much each believe and avows “freedom of the bathroom” there can be no such thing. Then the residents can some rules, rosters, time limits and so forth. In our timeline NIMBYism exists because the wild frontier no longer exists. So it is in all areas of our lives. Overshoot trumps freedom ultimately. Eventually collapse becomes economically rational compared to uneconomic growth. This is how civilisations collapse, because it is cheaper because it is less complex. This is explained well by Joseph Tainter in his book “The Collapse of Complex Societies”.
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Dave Gardner
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Thanks, Peter. Good thoughts. I love Asimov’s “Freedom of the Bathroom” metaphor. Glad you brought that up. I think Klein and Thompson are reacting to the fact that more regulation has become necessary (thanks to growth in the scale of the human enterprise).
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