In 2022, a group of developers proposed transforming a Nordstrom parking lot in San Francisco into nearly 500 apartments, many of them affordable and close to public transit. But before they could even begin the formal approval process, they faced a preliminary review. This step wasn’t approval to build or denial—it was simply a list of required studies and permits. Even so, it took over 500 days.
That kind of delay is not unique. All over the country, efforts to construct housing, clean energy projects, and public transit face bureaucratic slowdowns. These obstacles aren’t rooted in technology or funding—they’re procedural. And according to Ezra Klein, they are largely self-inflicted.
A Politics of Abundance
Ezra Klein’s new book, Abundance, co-authored with Derek Thompson, confronts this crisis head-on. At its heart is a question that Klein believes should be central to politics: what do we need more of, and how do we get it? America’s challenges, he argues, stem from a scarcity of housing, energy infrastructure, and transportation—not because we can’t build these things, but because our systems are designed to prevent us from doing so efficiently.
Instead of embracing abundance, the U.S. has developed a culture of delay. Layers of review and the threat of endless lawsuits have made it incredibly difficult to bring even well-intentioned projects to life.
High-Speed Rail as a Case Study
California’s high-speed rail project offers a striking example. The state began studying the idea in the 1980s, and a ballot initiative approved it in 2008, promising service by 2020 for $33 billion. As of 2025, no trains are running. The projected cost has tripled, and construction has been whittled down to a limited segment between Merced and Bakersfield—at a cost higher than the original entire project.
The project has been plagued by environmental reviews that stretch over a decade, endless lawsuits, political compromises, and cumbersome negotiations. In practical terms, California has made it illegal to build high-speed rail. This pattern repeats across sectors: what begins as reasonable oversight evolves into a tangle of red tape that delays or kills essential infrastructure.
The Hidden Cost of Inaction
Critics of large-scale development often highlight the harms that projects can inflict on local communities, particularly those that are vulnerable. Klein doesn’t dismiss those concerns. But he also emphasizes the cost of doing nothing.
When clean energy projects are blocked, the long-term environmental damage disproportionately affects the poor. When housing isn’t built, affordability worsens. When transit is delayed, mobility and access suffer. Inaction has consequences—and they often fall hardest on the very groups we aim to protect.
From the New Deal to the New Left
Klein traces the roots of today’s regulatory culture to the postwar backlash against the New Deal. While the New Deal era unleashed a torrent of building—highways, housing, dams—it also left a trail of destruction in communities that had little power to resist. In response, a new generation of liberals, environmentalists, and consumer advocates emerged in the 1960s and 70s. Figures like Rachel Carson and Ralph Nader helped create a regulatory framework designed to rein in the excesses of unchecked growth.
These reforms were vital at the time, but over the decades they’ve calcified. Instead of ensuring thoughtful development, they now often serve as levers for delay. Klein argues that our political system has prioritized process over outcomes, stalling the very progress many of these rules were intended to protect.
Voice Without Veto
Klein is not calling for an authoritarian model of governance. He respects the importance of community input and environmental safeguards. But he believes we’ve conflated voice with veto power. The result is a system where well-organized opposition can derail projects indefinitely, often regardless of public benefit.
The key challenge is how to design processes that incorporate genuine input without granting permanent veto rights to any single interest group. It’s a hard problem, and the answer isn’t the same everywhere. But ignoring the issue means continuing to choke off the very infrastructure we need to thrive.
Emergencies Reveal What’s Possible
Ironically, when emergencies strike, American governments routinely demonstrate their ability to build quickly and effectively. After the I-95 bridge collapse in Pennsylvania, for example, a project expected to take more than a year was completed in just 12 days under emergency authority.
If government can act decisively in a crisis, Klein asks, why not treat chronic crises—like housing, climate change, and transit—with the same urgency? Declaring an emergency shouldn’t be the only way to make the state function.
A Liberalism of the Details
Klein describes his framework not just as a “liberalism that builds,” but as a “liberalism of the details.” It’s not enough to pass big legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act or the Affordable Care Act. What happens after—the regulations, permitting, procurement, and construction—is where success or failure is decided.
And too often, liberals don’t pay attention to that part. By the time a project is in the hands of administrators and lawyers, it’s already being reshaped, delayed, and sometimes killed. Real progress requires following through—not just with vision, but with execution.
Building Better, Talking Better
Part of the problem is perception. Americans often encounter government in frustrating ways—DMV visits, taxes, construction zones—rather than through visible, successful projects. Klein urges politicians to build tangible, high-quality infrastructure and to talk about it. Brag about it, even. He criticizes the Democratic tendency toward modesty and procedure, arguing that the public needs visible proof that government can work, and work well.
Success stories like electric vehicle chargers, broadband expansion, or transit improvements should be turned into advertisements for what effective governance looks like. Otherwise, public trust continues to erode, and the case for collective investment gets harder to make.
Learning From What Works
For those who see Klein’s vision as utopian, he points to places where it’s already happening. Cities like Austin have found ways to build more housing without descending into authoritarianism. Countries like Spain, France, and Japan run efficient rail systems without sacrificing democracy.
The real challenge is not dreaming up a new system from scratch. It’s recognizing the good examples that already exist, studying them, and adapting them. Klein wants us to stop pretending the only alternatives are dysfunction or despotism. There’s a middle path—one that values speed, equity, and public trust.
Toward Institutional Renewal
Ultimately, Abundance is a call for institutional renewal. The laws and processes that once solved the problems of the 20th century now create new obstacles in the 21st. Rather than scrapping those institutions entirely, Klein wants to update them—to align our systems with today’s challenges, from housing shortages to climate threats.
That means electing leaders with both vision and competence. It means designing laws that allow judgment and flexibility. And it means remembering that the job doesn’t end when the bill is passed. It ends when the public can see, feel, and use the results.
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