Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

Critiquing Abundance + What’s Left: 3 Paths Through the Planetary Crisis w/ Malcolm Harris

Jun 11, 2025
Malcolm Harris, a writer and political theorist known for his book 'What's Left? Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis,' critiques the Abundance Agenda famously championed by Ezra Klein. He insists this approach overlooks key structural issues in capitalism. Harris proposes three strategies—marketcraft, public power, and communism—advocating for collaborative, democratic planning to navigate the climate crisis. He also examines the intertwining of climate issues with social justice, arguing for unified movements to confront these challenges.
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INSIGHT

What Abundance Really Means

  • The Abundance agenda seeks to accelerate production by removing regulatory obstructions.
  • It fails to address who benefits, who builds, and power dynamics in capitalism.
INSIGHT

Differences in Market Strategies

  • Market craft strategy shares overlap with parts of the Abundance agenda.
  • It treats markets as tools to shape outcomes, but Abundance often advocates freeing markets rather than guiding them.
INSIGHT

Reframing NIMBY vs YIMBY Debate

  • The NIMBY vs YIMBY framing oversimplifies complex housing and environmental debates.
  • Harris wants discourse beyond binary labels that examine structural economic issues.
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