The Emergence of Supply-Side Progressivism

Despite its association with the right wing, writes Ezra Klein in an op-ed, "you can see something new and overdue emerging in American politics: supply-side progressivism." Klein goes on to explain "the driving theory of most of the progressive policy agenda, most of the time: give people money or a moneylike voucher they can use to buy something they need or even just want." This, he argues, often makes progressives "uninterested in the creation of the goods and services they want everyone to have. This creates a problem and misses an opportunity" that leads to scarcity and rationing. "You can see the poisoned fruit of those mistakes in higher education and housing," for example. 

This philosophy, according to Klein, "also misses the opportunity to pull the technologies of the future progressives want into the present they inhabit. That requires a movement that takes innovation as seriously as it takes affordability." Klein points to "Aaron Bastani’s 'Fully Automated Luxury Communism,' a leftist tract that puts the technologies in development right now — artificial intelligence, renewable energy, asteroid mining, plant- and cell-based meats, and genetic editing — at the center of a postwork, postscarcity vision." But Bastani warns that 'the same technologies could become accelerators of inequality and want if they’re not embedded in thoughtful policies and institutions." 

A better world in which we can solve problems like climate change "requires inventions and advances that render old problems obsolete and new possibilities manifold," writes Klein. But he sees hope in recent developments that acknowledge the importance of supply-side thinking. "Much of the spending in the Biden agenda is dedicated to increasing the supply of renewable energy and advanced batteries while building the supply of carbon-neutral transportation options. Democrats have realized that markets alone will not solve the climate crisis."