I hope we'll look back at this moment and see the roots of a successful movement for growth, combining libertarian-ish progress studies with the neoliberal abundance agenda. It's disinterested in culture war brouhahas, focused on structural reform and technological innovation. Its opposite is the spirit of the age, a scarcity mindset afflicting both much of the Left and Right.

Both are rooted in a fundamental pessimism about human possibility. The Left fixates on redistributing a fixed economic pie, making sure that those left out in the past get a fairer share today. But there's little engagement with the sources of prosperity, and even an overt hostility to the mechanisms that are key to creating a more abundant future. The Right fixates on protecting past economic and social privileges, making sure that immigrants and others don't take what's not "rightfully" theirs. There's little engagement with the reality that growth and innovation aren't zero sum games, and that human exchange improves life for all.

Posts

Wiki Contributions

Comments