Prosperity.
That has always been the goal. But we have lost its true meaning.
Prosperity. We want it, our leaders promise it, and if they fail to deliver it, we throw them out.
In our society currently, prosperity means being successful and having a lot of money.
That success usually means having a lot of material possessions as well.
If you’ve been here any amount of time, you know that is problematic.
Wealth needs more growth, growth extending on into infinity even though that is not possible. And pursuing it is harmful, because it means we have to use ever more energy and ever more materials in a world that already past its limits.
GDP growth of just 2 percent means we double the size of our economy in 35 years. That will break us.
Where the hell did this foolish notion of prosperity come from?
The prosperity fantasy has many sources.
The reason prosperity is important is so that it can be used to protect people. Prosperity once did and should mean having enough - not having more. For our society to walk away from the fantasy of eternal growth, we need to see prosperity as having enough for ourselves, and enough to help others if they need it.
Put starting with the advent of aggressive advertising telling us our wants were our needs. This started about 100 years ago when the science of advertising was really born, and we began to be called consumers more than citizens, and our responsibilities ever since have tilted more to “by more” than “be a good citizen”. About 90 years ago GDP was created as a way to measure the success of our economy. Over time our business and political leaders learned that if they could “grow” the economy that would create more jobs, and people could be better consumers and buy more. This was seen as a virtuous cycle if you just ignored that the constant need for “more” would result in the destruction of the world we need to produce “more”. In the span of about 100 years we have turned the definition of prosperity as “enough” that had endured for millennia into “too much is never enough”.
That is a disease.
Religion also played a part. A 2023 study from Lifeway Research showed that the percentage of Americans that said God wanted them to financially prosper was 76 percent. Nearly half (45 percent) said that they have to do something for God in order to receive material blessings from him.
This kind of thinking is known as the ‘prosperity gospel’ and is generally a way for religious people to excuse unethical actions of themselves or their leaders if those actions result in them getting rich.
I grew up Catholic, and maybe I missed a day or two, but I never learned the lesson where God operated by quid pro quo.
Go back and read that New Testament. I know the words are interpretations of things written about 2,000 years ago, but I have a hard time finding the words, “God wants you to be rich” anywhere in there. I think you will find an even harder time finding the sentiment “protect your personal wealth at all costs”.
I am not a bible verse guy, but I remember Matthew 19:24 well.
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Some people say the “eye of the needle” was actually a small gate in the old city of Jerusalem that a camel could pass through only once it shed the belongings it carried on its sides. This means Jesus was teaching that a rich person must shed his excess belongings if he wants to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Do you think that message resonates with those who are religious and wealthy today?
Let’s rewrite what prosperity means
Well, the root word is “prosper”. Any Star Trek fan knows that “live long and prosper” doesn’t mean “hey, I hope you get rich.” It means a wish for someone to have a long life filled with success, health, and happiness. (There is actually a very cool story behind the origin of the Star Trek live long and prosper greeting that you can see here.)
Health, happiness and general success is what we want for ourselves and those in our community. But success doesn’t have to mean a huge pile of gold, or more possessions than we know what to do with. And any success that destroys your planet … well, that isn’t success, is it.
Prosperity is living a good life. Sitting on a pile of gold isn’t a good life. Using the gold you have to make the world a better place is a proper use of gold.
Our focus on acquiring more power and wealth is just avarice and greed. I don’t know of any thesaurus where those are synonyms for prosperity.
Prosperity is education, health, success, and the same for your loved ones and community.
A society that defines prosperity as wealth, will fail to value the things that aren’t directly tied to wealth, and will degrade over time. That society loses its moral bearing.
A society that defines prosperity as community will thrive long into the future.
Live long and prosper.
We'll either choose stability willingly or it will be forced upon us by Mother Nature and Father Time working together. I was fortunate to be working in Family Planning in East Asia when Norman Borlaug, the Father of the Green Revolution, won the Nobel Prize in 1970. At the end of his very long acceptance speech he said..."The green revolution has won a temporary success in man’s war against hunger and deprivation; it has given man a breathing space. If fully implemented, the revolution can provide sufficient food for sustenance during the next three decades. But the frightening power of human reproduction must also be curbed; otherwise the success of the green revolution will be ephemeral only."
"Most people still fail to comprehend the magnitude and menace of the “Population Monster”... By the time of Christ, world population had probably reached 250 million. But between then and now, population has grown to 3.5 billion. Growth has been especially fast since the advent of modern medicine. If it continues to increase at the estimated present rate of two percent a year, the world population will reach 6.5 billion by the year 2000. Currently, with each second, or tick of the clock, about 2.2 additional people are added to the world population. The rhythm of increase will accelerate to 2.7, 3.3, and 4.0 for each tick of the clock by 1980, 1990, and 2000, respectively, unless man becomes more realistic and preoccupied about this impending doom. The ticktock of the clock will continually grow louder and more menacing each decade. Where will it all end?"
"Malthus signaled the danger a century and a half ago. But he emphasized principally the danger that population would increase faster than food supplies. In his time he could not foresee the tremendous increase in man’s food production potential. Nor could he have foreseen the disturbing and destructive physical and mental consequences of the grotesque concentration of human beings into the poisoned and clangorous environment of pathologically hypertrophied megalopoles. Can human beings endure the strain? Abnormal stresses and strains tend to accentuate man’s animal instincts and provoke irrational and socially disruptive behavior among the less stable individuals in the maddening crowd."
"We must recognize the fact that adequate food is only the first requisite for life. For a decent and humane life we must also provide an opportunity for good education, remunerative employment, comfortable housing, good clothing, and effective and compassionate medical care. Unless we can do this, man may degenerate sooner from environmental diseases than from hunger."
"And yet, I am optimistic for the future of mankind, for in all biological populations there are innate devices to adjust population growth to the carrying capacity of the environment. Undoubtedly, some such device exists in man, presumably Homo sapiens, but so far it has not asserted itself to bring into balance population growth and the carrying capacity of the environment on a worldwide scale. It would be disastrous for the species to continue to increase our human numbers madly until such innate devices take over. It is a test of the validity of sapiens as a species epithet."
"Since man is potentially a rational being, however, I am confident that within the next two decades he will recognize the self-destructive course he steers along the road of irresponsible population growth and will adjust the growth rate to levels which will permit a decent standard of living for all mankind. If man is wise enough to make this decision and if all nations abandon their idolatry of Ares, Mars, and Thor, then Mankind itself should be the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize which is “to be awarded to the person who has done most to promote brotherhood among the nations'”.
For the full text please see - https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1970/borlaug/lecture/
Great piece. A lot of these ideas are the basis for Kim Stanley Robinson's brilliant book The Ministry for the Future, which is definitely worth a read for anyone thinking through some of the policy implications.