Abundance for the 99 Percent

Abundance is the precondition of socialism, but socialism is also the precondition of abundance.

Review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (Simon & Schuster, 2025)

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s 2025 bestseller Abundance kicks off with sharp critiques of Jimmy Carter’s anti-statist declaration that “government cannot solve our problems” and Bill Clinton’s announcement that “the era of Big Government is over.” It concludes with a rousing endorsement of Karl Marx’s famous “fettering” thesis — the idea that capitalism eventually stifles the very productive forces it once unleashed. In spite of these anti-neoliberal flourishes, it has received a surprisingly cool response from some sections of the Left.

The book is, at its core, an argument about the myriad blockages that constr