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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
J Oliver Conroy

What is ‘abundance’ liberalism, and why are people arguing about it?

A solar electric generating system in the Mojave desert. The book Abundance argues for sustainable energy ‘so clean it barely leaves a carbon trace’.
A solar electric generating system in the Mojave desert. The book Abundance argues for sustainable energy ‘so clean it barely leaves a carbon trace’. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

Is progressive public policy in America broken? Do many left-leaning laws actually make life more expensive for struggling people? Is regulatory red tape hindering growth and innovation? Have Democratic-run cities, such as New York and San Francisco, become giant billboards against liberal governance?

These arguments wouldn’t sound out of place in a policy paper from a conservative thinktank. Yet their newest champions are two of America’s best-known left-leaning journalists, the New York Times’ Ezra Klein and the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson – and they believe the left is overdue for a reckoning of sorts.

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