A Real Abundance Agenda Starts by Rolling Back Patent and Copyright Monopolies

Photo by Julian Hochgesang

“Abundance” has become the cool word for Democratic politics. The idea is that we need to eliminate government regulations that block housing construction and other projects. While there is certainly value in rolling back excessive regulation, it likely has less benefit than advertised.

In the case of housing, we were building plenty of housing before the bubble burst in 2007-10. Most of the current shortage in housing is fallout from the crash, when the country hugely underbuilt housing for a decade.