Abundance

“For years, we accepted homelessness and poverty and untreated disease and declining life expectancy. For years, we knew what we needed to build to alleviate the scarcities so many faced and create the opportunities so many wanted, and we simply didn’t build it. For years, we failed to invent and implement technology that would make the world cleaner, healthier, and richer. For years, we constrained our ability to solve the most important problems. Why?”

Klein and Thompson utilize repetition by starting each sentence with “for years,” which heightens the literary tension by illustrating the sheer number of failures the US has encountered and draws the attention of their audience. In ending with a rhetorical question, Klein and Thompson leave the audience with uncertainty before going on to answer this question in the rest of the introductory chapter.

“This reflected a faith in the market that was, in its way, no less touching than that offered by Republicans. It assumed that so long as enough money was dangled in front of it, the private sector could and would achieve social goals. It revealed a disinterest in the workings of government.”

Klein and Thompson explain how both Republicans and liberals fall into the traps of supply-side economics. While Republicans seek to allow the market to operate on its own, liberals toss money at it instead of enacting systemic change.

“The difference between an economy that grows and an economy that stagnates is change. When you grow an economy, you hasten a future that is different. The more growth there is, the more radically the future diverges from the past. We have settled on a metaphor for growth that erases its most important characteristic.”

Klein and Thompson advocate for growth, but they are cautious in explaining what type of growth can bring about a brighter future. Change in the economy is necessary to create abundance, as an economy rooted in green energy and affordable housing is a just one.