Jun. 4, 2026
'Abundance' for whom?
The housing crisis is about inequality, not environmental law.
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Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's bestselling book "Abundance" has offered a seductive diagnosis for what ails America: we have forgotten how to build. Housing is too expensive, they argue, because environmental laws like the California Environmental Quality Act make it too costly and too slow to construct new units. Strip away the red tape, build more, and prices will fall. It is a simple story, bipartisan in its appeal, and wrong.
A growing body of academic research now demonstra...
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