E7: E7: Matthew Yglesias on One Billion Americans

Are 1 billion Americans needed to keep America prosperous and competitive on the world stage? This week, Stephen Kent is joined by Matt Yglesias, co-founder of Vox, founder of the "Slow Boring" Substack, and author of One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger. Watch as Stephen, Matt, and Wadi Gaitan of The LIBRE Initiative, discuss the misframed immigration debate, the case for a much larger US population, the buzzy new book from John Boehner, and what is necessary to keep America great. ---- Content of This Episode ---- 00:00​​ Episode Start 00:07 Coming up in Episode 7 02:15 Meet new co-host Wadi Gaitan 03:35 Pick your partners, economically speaking 09:45 Immigration is a tool, not a virtue 16:32 No, it’s not too crowded – just ask Texas 18:58 Reviving small towns 22:26 Bringing down the cost of kids 28:57 Population pumping policies 31:15 Infrastructure for 1 billion people 35:08 “The Jetsons” had an optimistic view of the future 36:40 Washington has trouble with that vision thing 44:24 Raise a glass to John Boehner’s new book 51:11 We’ve got some good news---- Reading List ----One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger by Matthew Yglesiashttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/636499/one-billion-americans-by-matthew-yglesias/ "Slow Boring" ​by Matthew Yglesias https://www.slowboring.com/On the House: A Washington Memoir ​by John Boehner https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250277183 Panic Rooms, Birth Certificates, and the Birth of GOP Paranoia (Politico) https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/02/john-boehner-book-memoir-excerpt-478506 Biden calls for massive climate and transit package (Axios) https://www.axios.com/biden-climate-transit-package-d9c8ffad-4486-4e61-a7bb-3d421fa0546d.html---- Plugs for our guest ---- Follow Matthew Yglesias on Twitter:https://twitter.com/mattyglesias