What's Missing in Abundance
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s timing with Abundance is impeccable. I cannot recall a book that has garnered so many wide-ranging reviews, lauding and condemning the work from a variety of political persuasions. Even the criminologists have a take! Here’s mine:
First, I love the policy debate. As we watch the haphazard, chaotic dismemberment of the federal government, it’s refreshing to know that so many people from such diverse political backgrounds believe public policy matters. It does, and we should celebrate that common belief as something that brings us together.
What I take away more strongly is something missing: the role of the private sector. If the main message is that public policy at times exacerbates imbalance in the supply and demand of essential goods, what is the role of the private sector, which provides most of the goods and services that define our collective well- (or not-so-well) being?
The sector with the most capital, the most jobs, and the most to spend and invest is put to the side, seemingly helpless against the whims of the regulatory regime. But is the private sector really powerless to act? Do business leaders really lack agency in deciding where to invest, whom to hire, etc.?
Of course not. Businesses are made up of leaders who make decisions, day in and day out, balancing a wide range of factors. When Discover opened a new call center in Chatham, when JPMorgan Chase changed is hiring practices to hire employees with arrest and conviction records, when ITW decided to invest in a campus in Austin, when Accenture removed four-year degree requirements to access previously untapped talent, leaders in each of these companies chose to move their firms in ways that would foster success for their businesses, employees, and communities.
No doubt regulatory regimes need to change in many ways, and we will continue to debate and hopefully improve those regimes. While we debate, business leaders who have the courage to invest on a different supply/demand curve, the foresight to cultivate pools of talent others overlook, and the vision to invest in communities that will one day provide competitive financial returns are making choices today that will define their companies and the well-being of communities we live in for years to come.
In his first speech as Prime Minister, Mark Carney, the former Goldman Sachs banker, commented,
I know that markets don’t have values, people do. When markets are governed well, they deliver great jobs and strong growth better than anything. But markets are also indifferent to human suffering and are blind to our greatest needs.
The same can be said for businesses. On their own, they have no values. The people who lead and run businesses bring to life the values that determine whether the results are the abundant future Klein and Thompson envision.