by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
Read by the authors
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Content: It gets a bit policy-wonky at times. It’s in the Politics section of the bookstore.

In this slim, yet dense, book, Klein and Thompson take the Democrats/liberals to task for not doing enough to support the politics of plenty. We have enough, they argue, we should be able to have a more equal society. And yet, we don’t. They look at history and policy and ask questions about why we aren’t making progress in technology, science, climate change, housing, and transportation. And it boils down to: we have let government regulations slow everything down to the point of inaction.

This was a challenging book for me at least. I’ve always been on the side of government is and can do good for the bulk of the people, and I’m a big supporter of things like universal health care are and universal basic incomes. But, given that our government is the way it is (or isn’t anymore, honestly), why can’t we have a country that distributes its abundance more equitably. Klien and Thompson break it down, and challenge the status quo, insisting (rightly) that it doesn’t work. They admit that they don’t have answers – because the answers for one place will be different than answers in another – but they do recommending asking one question: why? If something isn’t working, if something is broken: ask why? Why does Wichita have a problem with the homeless? Because there is a housing shortage. Well: why? And then go from there. Talk about policies that address the why.

I don’t have any real hope that this book will change anything at a national level, but I found it challenging enough to rethink some of my ideas about how things Should Be. And perhaps that’s all Klein and Thompson can ask for.