Lately, people across the political spectrum have been celebrating a renewed call to “cut red tape” in the name of business growth. As a progressive Democrat – and a La Plata County commissioner – I’m genuinely here for that conversation. But the more I talk with neighbors, business owners and fellow policymakers about the so-called “abundance movement,” the more I realize many folks are missing the point.
There has been considerable discussion around Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein’s work on abundance. I can’t tell you how many times someone has forwarded me a summary of their book – often generated by ChatGPT. What I encounter less often are people who have actually read and digested the argument. That matters, because abundance is not deregulation, and confusing the two risks repeating mistakes we already know too well.
As a self-identified “supply-side progressive,” I believe deeply in economic growth. I also believe growth only matters if it shows up in people’s real lives: affordable housing, accessible child care, reliable infrastructure and opportunities for small businesses to start and scale. Supply-side progressivism rests on a simple idea: Good governance can expand the productive capacity of the economy while ensuring the benefits of that expansion are broadly shared.
In practical terms, that means streamlined decision-making, capable public institutions and policies that focus on outcomes rather than ideology. The goal is abundance – of homes, workers, services and opportunity.
Deregulation, by contrast, is mostly about subtraction. It assumes that if government simply gets out of the way, free markets will naturally deliver optimal results. Sometimes that works. Often it doesn’t. The difference between these two approaches isn’t academic; it’s intentional. Supply-side progressivism asks whether a policy actually delivers what people need. Deregulation asks whether rules can be eliminated, regardless of outcome.
History is instructive. The greatest gains in American prosperity didn’t come from stripping government away. They came from moments when public investment helped build the foundations of growth. Rural electrification, the GI Bill, the Interstate Highway System and federally funded research didn’t just grow GDP – they modernized regions, expanded opportunity and lifted wages across income levels. Government wasn’t a barrier to markets; it was the scaffolding that allowed them to function.
By contrast, major deregulation eras promised growth through efficiency alone. Financial and transportation deregulation lowered some prices and increased competition, but it also accelerated consolidation, weakened labor power and widened inequality. Later waves of financial liberalization boosted short-term returns – until they produced systemic risk and crisis. Deregulation often expands profits faster than productive capacity, rewarding speculation more than real investment.
Abundance is different. Abundance is built.
This distinction matters enormously at the local level. Governments like La Plata County don’t write laws – we enforce the ones passed by the state. We operate within tight constraints and limited revenue tools. Yet local government is where abundance either becomes real or stalls out.
We decide how quickly housing gets approved. We shape whether child care centers can open. We determine whether infrastructure projects move forward in years or decades. We can design systems that are predictable, transparent, and efficient – or ones that are slow, fragmented and unintentionally exclusionary.
That’s where creativity comes in. Getting creative doesn’t mean ignoring the law. It means making systems work as intended. It means aligning land-use codes with comprehensive plans, fixing internal contradictions that add cost without adding safety and using technology to speed up permitting while protecting health and the environment. It means asking whether a rule is delivering the outcome it promised.
In our county, we have an opportunity to foster an abundance of housing, child care and business diversity – conditions that make it easier for families to stay, entrepreneurs to take risks and kids to imagine a future here. That work isn’t about tearing systems down. It’s about making them function.
Intent matters. Some movements aim to dismantle the administrative state. That is not the abundance agenda. Abundance is about building a government capable of delivering what people actually need. It recognizes markets are powerful – but only when the foundations are strong.
As we move forward, the question should be simple: Does this policy help our community thrive? If the answer is yes, that’s abundance. If the goal is merely to tear something down, we’ve missed the point, and honestly … an opportunity.
Elizabeth Philbrick is a La Plata County commissioner. The views expressed are her own.
