Ben Groff

Abundance usually gets explained as a list of problems: zoning, permits, licensing, slow approvals. Here’s what we'd actually get if we fixed them: Lunch costs $4, like it does in Japan and Singapore. Most US cities require three or four separate sinks, which makes a kitchen under 200 square feet nearly impossible. Anyone can open an owl cafe or a vegan lesbian bookstore. Japan is full of tiny, oddly specific businesses run by one or two people. They survive because small spaces are cheap and enough people live close enough to walk in. A room in a big city for $400 a month. These buildings housed millions of low-income and older Americans until cities banned most of them by the 1980s. A three-bedroom apartment you can stay in after you have a kid. US codes require two staircases in buildings over three stories, so family-sized units only fit on the corners. Most of the world allows one staircase. A new electric car for about $10,000. China sells these globally. Americans can't buy it. A government so dependable it's boring. When a loved one dies, you report it once instead of to every agency. We can decide to make it happen here. The full list has 16 things, from taco trucks on every corner to no more pandemics. I wrote this to also announce that today is DC Abundance's official launch! If you’re in DC, come celebrate and see the G.O.A.T. Derek Thompson speak!