DEBUNKING

THE ABUNDANCE AGENDA

We need a real Abundance agenda: one that is built on the democratic legacy of the New Deal and puts working people, renters, and our communities before corporate landlords and polluting industries. Instead, what we are getting is a faux Abundance agenda that wants to gut government regulations to benefit private corporations and their backers. While awareness of the Abundance agenda surged after the publication of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book Abundance in early 2025, a broader Abundance movement has been coalescing over the last three years into a political force powered by over a hundred million dollars of Big Tech, Big Oil and real estate money. We need to act now before the billionaire-backed Abundance agenda brings in a new age of neoliberalism and even more inequality.

THE ABUNDANCE AGENDA FACT ^vs FICTION

Abundance, the new book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, claims that the defining problem facing the country is too many public rules that make it hard for the private sector to build new homes, develop more clean energy, and have faster transportation options. If we focused on addressing this problem, instead of attacking corporations, we could have “abundance for all.”

Environmental, labor, and consumer protection regulations (and lawsuits against the government to ensure regulations are enforced) are not the problem – large corporations and financial firms that profit from scarcity with massive lobbying teams are. History shows that removing regulations doesn’t encourage private sector growth, but it does hurt all of us by taking away protections from corporate exploitation. Increasing government capacity to analyze and permit infrastructure projects would speed up building timelines without gutting safeguards; the Trump administration is doing just the opposite.

Abundance advocates claim liberals and progressives focus too much on addressing wealth and income inequality instead of on building more stuff. This is costing Democrats elections.

According to a new poll by Demand Progress, Democratic voters prefer a populist message over one that focuses on an “abundance agenda.” 72.5% of Democrats reacted positively to the populist argument compared to 39.6% for Republicans. It was 55.4% for independents.

If governments remove barriers to housing supply, like ending land use regulations, this will lead to more housing developments, and abundant housing for all.

While liberalizing zoning rules is needed in many places, it is not a panacea to the housing problem in many major cities. Lifting the zoning constraints and other regulations that raise the cost of housing construction is not enough to ensure that all Americans can afford a home. We also need safeguards for tenants and public investment in social housing to ensure true abundant housing.

Governments need to loosen environmental permitting and review rules so that we can have more clean energy infrastructure sooner and faster. This is how we can have energy abundance and greater action towards decarbonization.

Decarbonization requires us to build more renewable energy and get rid of polluting energy. Eliminating the processes for assessing the environmental impact of new infrastructure will only harm the government’s ability to make environmentally responsible decisions, and stop the public from being able to hold the government accountable for its decisions. We can help reduce the harms of the climate crisis andprevent the destruction of the natural world through smart policy that understands that fighting climate change requires reducing both greenhouse gas pollution and protecting ecosystems.

The Abundance agenda has a big tent that enables it to move beyond partisan party politics and focus on the problems and solutions at hand. This is the coalition we need to deliver for working people from all backgrounds.

The Abundance agenda is powered by the wealth of billionaires, many of whom are also allies of the current Trump administration. Its original backers, intellectuals, and financiers have no connections to membership organizations like labor unions, nor any real interest in engaging with regular people. This is an elitist agenda masquerading as popular democracy.