Some policies simply won't ever be "smart."

The story of America in the twenty-first century is the story of chosen scarcities,” argue Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in Abundance, the manual of their movement, quoted by Samuel Gregg in his recent essay here at Law & Liberty. More succinctly, Klein and Thompson state, “red tape is the central issue of the era.” At the root of what some have also called “supply side progressivism” is the desire for government or the market to produce the necessary goods and services that Americans should have in housing, energy, healthcare, transportation, and technology. The emerging Abundance movement thoughtfully reflects aspects of economic reality in its main observations and many of its recommendations for tackling current challenges in the American economy. However, Abundance enthusiasts show no great desire, theoretical or otherwise, to rebuild freedom for markets or civil society, or to place constitutional limits on government power.

The Abundance movement makes a pragmatic case for more essential goods and services and isn’t really concerned with how this supply is incentivized or generated. It forsakes what advocates regard as tired philosophical debates about limited government, markets, and freedom. Of course, to argue in such a way is to choose ends that justify a variety of human actions. Supply-side progressivism can take many different courses.

...