Factually! with Adam Conover Why America Can’t Build (Yet) with Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
19 snips
May 7, 2025 
Ezra Klein, a New York Times columnist and author of 'Abundance', teams up with Derek Thompson, a staff writer at The Atlantic and co-author of the same book, to discuss America's stagnation in building and innovation. They explore the idea that many of the nation's biggest challenges could be tackled by simply building more. From the failures of the healthcare system to urgent housing crises, Klein and Thompson urge a reevaluation of policies and practices holding America back from progress.
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Legal Shifts Hinder Building
- America once built ambitiously but now struggles due to legal and philosophical shifts since the 1960s.
- Environmental and zoning laws now cause delays when we actually need faster building to address crises.
Housing Crunch from Legal Capture
- Housing shortage is not due to lack of knowledge but because laws make it too difficult to add density.
- Processes get captured by various interests creating artificial scarcity and raising costs.
Make Building Housing Default
- Legislatures should establish clear rules allowing people to build housing if they meet standards.
- Extraordinary reasons should be required to block building, reversing the current paradigm of easy obstruction.
