One Billion Americans

Matthew Yglesias

2020 • 288 pages

Ratings11

Average rating3.9

NATIONAL BESTSELLER 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 growth—like 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?

Want to edit this book?Become a Librarian

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Bradford Fults

If you are curious and rigorous about trying to understand new ideas and their implications, you could probably stop reading this book after about 50 pages.

The best part of the book is easily just the thesis itself: growing the U.S. population to one billion people (approximate 3X its current amount), through family building and immigration, would lead to a richer, more powerful nation, which is especially relevant in the face of China's ascent.

In fact, if you're curious and rigorous enough, you don't even need to read the book now: I just summarized the thesis.

The rest of the book is spent hand-waving at some decent policy structures and removal of some obvious impediments to realizing the goal, while also half-heartedly attempting to bat away expected criticisms (because it's not worth spending more time arguing against people who have no intention of being dissuaded). It's fine. The last third of the book feels super rushed and clipped, like a lot of content was dropped to meet a deadline.

But the gist is worth three stars on its own: strength through growth, to create a better world for Americans and non-Americans alike; technology and investment to mitigate the downsides. The end.

July 11, 2021