Abundance Pragmatism Fails
The Abundance movement cannot achieve the restoration of a constitutional order of defined and limited government, an independent civil society, and a free, moral people capable of self-government and economic prosperity.
The story of America in the twenty-first century is the story of chosen scarcities,” argue Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in Abundance, the manual of their movement, quoted by Samuel Gregg in his recent essay here at Law & Liberty. More succinctly, Klein and Thompson state, “red tape is the central issue of the era.” At the root of what some have also called “supply side progressivism” is the desire for government or the market to produce the necessary goods and services that Americans should have in housing, energy, healthcare, transportation, and technology. The emerging Abundance movement thoughtfully reflects aspects of economic reality in its main observations and many of its recommendations for tackling current challenges in the American economy. However, Abundance enthusiasts show no great desire, theoretical or otherwise, to rebuild freedom for markets or civil society, or to place constitutional limits on government power.
The Abundance movement makes a pragmatic case for more essential goods and services and isn’t really concerned with how this supply is incentivized or generated. It forsakes what advocates regard as tired philosophical debates about limited government, markets, and freedom. Of course, to argue in such a way is to choose ends that justify a variety of human actions. Supply-side progressivism can take many different courses.
As Gregg notes in his essay, the main opponents of Abundance are mostly within the Progressive movement itself, especially its emerging leadership, which favors various government programs to regulate and restrict markets in order to promote egalitarian outcomes. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, among others, are now primary movers in the Democratic Party. Much of the energy in the Democratic Party comes from former members of the Democratic Socialist Party. Their favored programs of not only regulation but also wholesale nationalization of sectors of the economy are no longer seen as unusual; they are becoming the main focus. Of course, if their programs became law, the result would be a severe shortage of goods and services. But as the Abundance movement shows, the rise of this cohort also offers a new opportunity on the Progressive side for comparatively level-headed thinking.
Read the full essay on Law & Liberty.
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