A thought-worthy perspective: the American dream is in jeopardy, ... but there are remedies
- sciart0
- May 9
- 1 min read
Caption: "The disease is the fact that liberalism, which used to be an ideology of building, has become an ideology of blocking.
...Walk into any big-box store in the U.S. today, and you’ll find cheap clothing, phones, and TVs. Want a name-brand TV with a big screen and 4K resolution? $350 — not nothing, but far cheaper than it cost in 2000.
But what about housing, education, and healthcare?
Why has the price of certain goods remained stable or decreased in the 21st century, while life’s most consequential things now cost so much?
According to Abundance, a new book by journalists Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein, it boils down to a failure to increase supply — especially in housing — and a tangle of regulations and institutional inertia that make it harder, not easier, to build what people actually need.
In this Big Think Interview, Thompson lays out the case for why the American dream is falling apart — and how we might get it back on track."