Derek Thompson

Well, my piece about the abundance agenda, which I wrote in 2022, started with me standing outside waiting for a COVID test. And this was a period where two years after the pandemic started, COVID tests were still being rationed. And it was like 21 degrees outside. And I was getting very, very frustrated about the fact that still we seem to have a scarcity of COVID tests.

Well, my piece about the abundance agenda, which I wrote in 2022, started with me standing outside waiting for a COVID test. And this was a period where two years after the pandemic started, COVID tests were still being rationed. And it was like 21 degrees outside. And I was getting very, very frustrated about the fact that still we seem to have a scarcity of COVID tests.

Well, my piece about the abundance agenda, which I wrote in 2022, started with me standing outside waiting for a COVID test. And this was a period where two years after the pandemic started, COVID tests were still being rationed. And it was like 21 degrees outside. And I was getting very, very frustrated about the fact that still we seem to have a scarcity of COVID tests.

And as I'm sitting outside just freezing my ass off and just getting really mad, I'm thinking, you know, it's not just COVID tests we've had scarcity. We also had a scarcity of COVID vaccines early on in the rollout, which created this really discombobulated scheme for distributing the early COVID vaccines.

And as I'm sitting outside just freezing my ass off and just getting really mad, I'm thinking, you know, it's not just COVID tests we've had scarcity. We also had a scarcity of COVID vaccines early on in the rollout, which created this really discombobulated scheme for distributing the early COVID vaccines.

And as I'm sitting outside just freezing my ass off and just getting really mad, I'm thinking, you know, it's not just COVID tests we've had scarcity. We also had a scarcity of COVID vaccines early on in the rollout, which created this really discombobulated scheme for distributing the early COVID vaccines.

And then also you go earlier into March and May of 2020, and we had a shortage of PPE equipment for our doctors to remain safe as they were taking care of a pandemic. And I thought, you know, it's interesting that this entire experience of the pandemic has essentially been defined by this concept of scarcity. And as I zoomed out a little bit, I thought, you know, it's not just the pandemic.

And then also you go earlier into March and May of 2020, and we had a shortage of PPE equipment for our doctors to remain safe as they were taking care of a pandemic. And I thought, you know, it's interesting that this entire experience of the pandemic has essentially been defined by this concept of scarcity. And as I zoomed out a little bit, I thought, you know, it's not just the pandemic.

And then also you go earlier into March and May of 2020, and we had a shortage of PPE equipment for our doctors to remain safe as they were taking care of a pandemic. And I thought, you know, it's interesting that this entire experience of the pandemic has essentially been defined by this concept of scarcity. And as I zoomed out a little bit, I thought, you know, it's not just the pandemic.

It's really so much the 21st century economy that's been defined by scarcity. Ezra beautifully described the degree to which housing unaffordability has become the economic problem of our time. In the history of political orders, each political order is in part defined by the internal crisis. The Great Depression springs New Deal liberalism. Stagflation springs neoliberalism.

It's really so much the 21st century economy that's been defined by scarcity. Ezra beautifully described the degree to which housing unaffordability has become the economic problem of our time. In the history of political orders, each political order is in part defined by the internal crisis. The Great Depression springs New Deal liberalism. Stagflation springs neoliberalism.

It's really so much the 21st century economy that's been defined by scarcity. Ezra beautifully described the degree to which housing unaffordability has become the economic problem of our time. In the history of political orders, each political order is in part defined by the internal crisis. The Great Depression springs New Deal liberalism. Stagflation springs neoliberalism.

Now we're in this molten moment where we're waiting for the new political order to emerge. And it's going to emerge because of the lever, because of the power of housing affordability. You have to solve that problem if you want to solve the problem of American anger about prices. And part of this is just pure arithmetic.

Now we're in this molten moment where we're waiting for the new political order to emerge. And it's going to emerge because of the lever, because of the power of housing affordability. You have to solve that problem if you want to solve the problem of American anger about prices. And part of this is just pure arithmetic.

Now we're in this molten moment where we're waiting for the new political order to emerge. And it's going to emerge because of the lever, because of the power of housing affordability. You have to solve that problem if you want to solve the problem of American anger about prices. And part of this is just pure arithmetic.

If you look at any family's budget, the biggest part of their budget in any given year is the part that goes to rent or mortgage. It's housing, housing, housing. And housing connects to everything else. It connects to innovation. You want cities to agglomerate, to bring smart people together. Housing relates to all sorts of other affordability.

If you look at any family's budget, the biggest part of their budget in any given year is the part that goes to rent or mortgage. It's housing, housing, housing. And housing connects to everything else. It connects to innovation. You want cities to agglomerate, to bring smart people together. Housing relates to all sorts of other affordability.

If you look at any family's budget, the biggest part of their budget in any given year is the part that goes to rent or mortgage. It's housing, housing, housing. And housing connects to everything else. It connects to innovation. You want cities to agglomerate, to bring smart people together. Housing relates to all sorts of other affordability.

Like if you care about the cost of child care or elder care, you want to make it cheaper to house institutions, buildings that can care for children, which means you want to bring those rents down. And so I thought as I'm zooming out on this concept of scarcity in the 21st century, we have chosen to make housing scarce.

Like if you care about the cost of child care or elder care, you want to make it cheaper to house institutions, buildings that can care for children, which means you want to bring those rents down. And so I thought as I'm zooming out on this concept of scarcity in the 21st century, we have chosen to make housing scarce.