Abundance

Klein and Thompson begin the book with a hypothetical vision of 2050 in which the major crises of the first decades of the 21st century have been solved. Energy is cheap and environmentally-friendly, water is no longer scarce thanks to desalination plants cleaning ocean water, food is grown in sustainable labs and indoor farms, and people have more free time and resources thanks to the sharing of AI’s profits that allow people to complete their work in less time. Klein and Thompson explain that this future would be possible with collective action and attention to the world’s crises, crises that are currently being ignored.

Scarcity Is a Choice

Klein and Thompson assert that scarcity is a choice. Their thesis is that to have the future people want, people need to build more of what they need. The story of 21st-century America is chosen scarcities, as people struggle to accept or implement the changes necessary to address the scarcities. Klein and Thompson give the examples of Americans resisting climate change measures, the construction of affordable housing, and reforms of the healthcare system. These resistances can stem from different beliefs or interests; an example includes the construction of a field of solar panels that would benefit the city they power but be a detriment to the rural community near which they’re built.