The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth at a time when the world is richer than it ever has been.
And yet our politics are defined by scarcity.
Scarcity of housing,
of energy and even of space has allowed zero sum thinking to permeate the electorate.
And that has been a boon for the forces of illiberalism.
Donald Trump rode to victory last November fueled by zero sum thinking.
If there's not enough to go around, then he's your man.
And now the question is whether the liberal response will be to fight him on his own terms or change the script.
My name's Jerusalem Demsis and this is good on paper.
A policy show that questions what we really know about popular narratives.
In a new book out today titled Abundance by the New York Times,
Ezra Klein and the Atlantic's Derek Thompson,
the authors argue for a sea change in how liberals have approached politics.
It's a great book.
We'll put the link in our show notes and I'm quoting from them here.
We imagine a future not of less, but of more.
We do not subscribe to the seductive ideologies of scarcity.
We will not get more or better jobs by closing our gates to immigrants.
We will not turn back climate change by persuading, persuading the world to starve itself of growth.
It is not merely that these visions are unrealistic.