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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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ONE BILLION AMERICANS

Matthew Yglesias

The Case for Thinking Bigger

What would actually make America great: more+ people.
If the most challenging crisis in living memory has shown us anything, it's that America has lost the will and the means to lead. We can't compete with the huge population clusters of the global marketplace by keeping our population static or letting it diminish, or with our crumbling transit and unaffordable housing. The winner in the future world is going to have more - more ideas, more ambition, more utilization of resources, more people.

Exactly how many Americans do we need to win? According to Matthew Yglesias, one billion.

From one of our foremost policy writers, One Billion Americans is the provocative yet logical argument that if we aren't moving forward, we're losing. Vox founder Yglesias invites us to think bigger, while taking the problems of decline seriously. What really contributes to national prosperity should not be controversial: supporting parents and children, welcoming immigrants and their contributions, and exploring creative policies that support growthlike more housing, better transportation, improved education, revitalized welfare, and climate change mitigation. Drawing on examples and solutions from around the world, Yglesias shows not only that we can do this, but why we must.

Making the case for massive population growth with analytic rigor and imagination, One Billion Americans issues a radical but undeniable challenge: Why not do it all, and stay on top forever?

Matthew Yglesias is the co-founder and senior correspondent for Vox. He also hosts the political podcast "The Weeds" and is a regular contributor to NPR's All Things Considered. Prior to Vox, he was a columnist for Slate, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and wrote for The American Prospect and The Atlantic. A New York City native, he currently lives in Washington, DC.
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Published 2020-09-15 by Portfolio

Comments

One of those rare, sparkling books that sets out to argue a point that you are likely not to have a deeply settled opinion on, and then forces you to work through a whole series of interconnected views and assumptions you may not realize you had. Persuasive and fresh, even where it may fail to convince you, it succeeds in making you think. Really think.

Well researched and convincing. This optimistic call to action is worth considering.

The genius of this book is in showing that dilemmas that are siloed across vast swaths of public policy are actually the same problem, with linked solutions. A bracing, ambitious manifesto that will leave you excited about the future that America could build, and furious at the weakness and decline so-called 'nationalists' want to ensure.

Audacious, purposefully provocative, and yet utterly persuasive, One Billion Americans does what the best works of political nonfiction do, recalibrating not just our sense of what is possible, but of what is necessary. American decline isn't inevitable, as much as it seems to be. We can avoid it, if we try.

...One Billion Americans is a useful blueprint for what that might look like in the 21st century. Read more...

Yglesias is an unpredictable thinker, willing to fly in the face of tribal norms... One Billion Americans harkens back to a time when policy discussions were not tribal melees.

article: The Emptiness of Matthew Yglesias's Biggest Idea - "One Billion Americans" is a loosely-informed mishmash of policy, held together by anxieties about American power. ... Read more...

The basic idea of the book, that America needs to commit to remaining the world's most powerful, productive nation, is a project that conservatives should emphatically support. Because Yglesias is right: We need more people.

One Billion Americans is not just surpassingly intelligent - it's also very clever: To support his plea for a much larger population, Yglesias sneaks in remedies for nearly every domestic policy failure that now besets us. In the process of arguing for a nation with more people, he provides the tools to build one that is also more prosperous and more equitable. This is an original, engaging, and necessary book.

[Yglesias] ponders how the United States might evolve if it were much more open to immigrants... [and] makes a bold case for openness in his own country. Read more...

An argument that blends demography, economics, and politics... The thesis is eminently arguable, but the book is packed full of provocative ideas well worth considering. Read more...

Q & A: 'One Billion Americans' author Matt Yglesias on increasing immigration, encouraging larger families, and why he signed the 'infamous Harper's letter' ... Read more...

One Billion Americans points to the practical changes that the United States can make in order to earn back its inherited position as the leader on the path toward universal freedom and dignity. It warns us all that being the envy of the world is a choice, not a fate.

Numlock Sunday: Matt Yglesias on One Billion Americans Read more...