Does the US suffer from an abundance of good intentions?

Sydney Morning Herald

29-04-2025

POLITICS
Abundance
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
Simon & Schuster, $45
In the 1930s, the US built the Empire State Building in 13 months. In the 1940s, the Pentagon, headquarters of the Defence Department, was constructed in 16 months. In the 1950s, developers in Levittown, Pennsylvania boasted they could produce a house every 16 minutes.
Yet today, construction has become slower and more expensive. Recent subway extensions in New York have cost billions of dollars per mile. A public toilet in San Francisco cost over a million dollars. US home building has fallen behind population demand, with construction costs largely to blame.
'Why can't America build like we used to?' is the central question at the heart of Abundance, a new book by New York Times podcast host Ezra Klein and Atlantic commentator Derek Thompson, which argues that a central focus for progressives should be raising wellbeing by creating more for everyone.
The book opens with a heady vision of an abundant society in 2050: clean energy so cheap it's barely worth metering, shorter working hours, longer holidays, better medicines, quicker commutes, and more affordable homes. The obstacle to these goals, the authors argue, is an abundance of good intentions. They call it 'Everything Bagel Liberalism': too many good things make a bad result. The metaphor lands best with those of us who find the Everything Bagel a confused mess, rather than a culinary marvel.
To see the problem, take the case of San Francisco's public toilet. Community engagement took six months. The bidding process took another six months. Construction took a further six months. Approvals were required from six government agencies and the local electric utility. From first announcement to first flush took two years and cost US$1.7 million.
Each of these processes is worthy in itself, the authors argue. But collectively, the focus on process rather than outcome has stymied construction. Differences in residential building codes are a major reason why homes are much cheaper in Houston than Los Angeles. As Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern put it in a recent book, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, when everyone has a veto, nothing gets built.
The same arguments apply in other areas. Scientists spend an increasing share of their time filling in grant applications instead of doing research. Administrative costs account for about one-quarter of US healthcare spending. Many regulations make sense individually, the authors note, but collectively, they have reduced the supply of homes, train lines, medical care and breakthrough science.