Thinking Out LoudWord on the street is that the New York Times bestseller Abundance, by commentators Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, is on the bedside tables of some of our most senior public policy thinkers.
In the book, Klein and Thompson diagnose why wealthy democracies – though awash with cash, resources, and human capital – struggle to solve so many of their problems.
Why can’t we build houses more quickly? Why the mountains of bureaucracy? And what happened to those flying cars and hoverboards we were promised in the Back to the Future movies?
According to most experts, it all comes back to increasing “productivity” – doing more and more with the resources we’ve got. Regardless of one’s politics, a more productive country has more options, more money, and – invariably – healthier and wealthier people.
But what if there’s more to “abundance” than the old chestnuts of modern politics: health, education, employment, and financial outcomes?
Speaking on the limits of economics, Robert F. Kennedy remarked that GDP counts the locks on our doors, the destruction of our resources and the guns that take lives, but does not count the beauty of our poetry, the strength of our marriages, or the intelligence of our public debate.
Kennedy’s words sense something of what Jesus called life “to the full”: lives that go beyond material riches. Lives with deeper meaning, higher purpose, thick relationships between each other and, ultimately, with God.
It’s good for us, and our governments, to pursue strong productivity and sound economic management. But holistic abundance demands more. It includes and transcends our quantitative scorecards – extending to the joy of our children, the kindness in our communities and the strength of our friendships.
There are some things we can outsource to governments and markets, but holistic abundance goes beyond material wealth, productivity, and good policy.
This Thinking Out Loud was first published on Facebook.