In the wake of the pandemic, a new debate has taken hold within the Democratic Party, one that questions whether America’s future lies in building more or regulating less. As journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson argue in their 2025 book Abundance, the nation’s greatest obstacles are soaring housing costs and aging infrastructure, which stem not from scarcity of funds but from an excess of regulation. Yet, while the call to build more promises a sense of renewal, it also revives past projects that displaced communities. The Abundance movement has thus split the Democrats, prompting the question: Can America construct its future without losing sight of the moral underpinnings of progress?

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