From Scarcity to Abundance For All
Creating a post-scarcity world in which all can thrive
In my new book, Toward a More Perfect Union: From Scarcity to Abundance For All, I talk about the ideas of scarcity and abundance, and that we need to shift society from a scarcity perspective to one that encompasses abundance.
Scarcity and abundance are terms used in both economics and psychology; you also find it used in spiritual circles. Most important about these terms is this: to create a more perfect union and a more positive future, one that is just, compassionate, fair, sustainable, regenerative, holistic, and wise, we will need to go beyond scarcity and towards abundance.
Or to put it another way, we need to create a post-scarcity future.
A post-scarcity world is one that embraces an abundance vantage point. Abundance is a way of thinking and being that, from a brain science standpoint, emanates from the neocortex, the most evolved part of the mammalian brain.
It’s a way that requires you to be transparent, open-minded, open-hearted, have a willingness to share, to connect, to collaborate. The mathematical precept that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts perfectly sums up the principle of abundance. This is synergy, and that’s what abundance leads to, a synergy that allows for the new to emerge.
Abundance is the opposite of scarcity; scarcity is a way of thinking that is deeply embedded in the reptilian brain: the person dominated by the reptilian brain is always looking out for themselves, and desires to get something before someone else gets it, and if need be, to crush or kill their rival in order to stop them from getting what the person with the reptilian impulses feels is theirs.
Scarcity shows up in the baser emotions of fear, greed, selfishness, narcissism, anger, psychopathy, and more. The principle of scarcity has been running our world for far too long; its time is coming to an end.
I’ve written a number of essays that highlight the rapacious greed that motivates the money class: this is the scarcity mindset in its blazing degeneracy.
A few of these essays include: The Incestuous Nature of Wall Street; Ponzis, Putin, and Private Equity: The Clash of Titans; and Money Love, Money Lust.
An abundance worldview recognizes there are limitations to natural resources and that unbridled consumerism is a dead end. Where abundance works as a force for good is in creating an open society, where much of life is seen as part of the public good and the Commons—not something to control as a tool for enrichment.
As a post-scarcity society sets in, a new narrative can develop; it would be based on abundance, where people are conditioned to collaborate and cooperate, and individuals and society work toward the greater good.
In a culture of abundance, walls separating people come down: Collaboration more freely takes place, the spirit of the Commons comes alive, and the creative impulse prospers.
In the U.S., there currently is abundance for the privileged few; for everyone else, scarcity is the prevailing motif.
The economic system of capitalism is rooted in scarcity; its modus operandi is to crush competitors and make profits at the cost of the well-being of people and planet.
Capitalism is not a holistic system, nor is scarcity a holistic way. The pressures of the capitalist system do not cultivate holism; instead it breeds scarcity and fragmentation, the end result being far too many disconnected and fragmented people.
That’s the story of our contemporary world: monumental disconnection, fragmentation, and loneliness. One medical scientist studying the effects of loneliness on health said, “It’s proven to be worse for health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.” And U.S. surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy has said that loneliness can lead to a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, and anxiety.
England was the first country to publicly recognize how profound the feeling of disconnection is, and in response instituted two Cabinet level positions: a Minister of Loneliness and another of Suicide Prevention.
England took this action as a reaction to the killing of Jo Cox, a Labour Party lawmaker who was murdered by a right-wing extremist in 2016. Ms. Cox had been a prominent voice in Parliament on the issue, setting up a commission that aimed to establish the scale and impact of loneliness in Britain.
Disconnection lies at the heart of the opioid and substance abuse addiction epidemics: Many people, in pain and feeling numb, find the little solace they can from the substances they take. That is why people dying from addictions—drug, alcohol, and others—are labeled “deaths of despair.”
Feelings of disconnection, fragmentation, and loneliness are emotional and spiritual wounds that need healing. At the same time, the economic system needs healing also, because it is the economic system that lays at the root of the malaise.
The utter futility of the neoliberal, capitalist system, with its reckless drive for unfettered profits, has laid communities bare, unraveling the social contract in many regions of the world.
The economic system needs a metamorphosis from neoliberal devastation to post-scarcity, post-capitalist, possibility.
In moving past a scarcity mentality, we must stop thinking about “what’s in it for me,” and “I’m not paying for something to help others.” That’s the mentality that impedes a society like the U.S. from becoming more of a social democracy and more of a society that focuses on abundance for everyone.
It’s a scarcity mentality that thinks doing good for someone else comes at the cost of something for ourselves. That’s why the U.S. is lacking in public goods such as single payer healthcare, free or low cost college, universal childcare, extended maternity/paternity leave, and a strong safety net that makes sure nobody is left behind.
The U.S. is stuck in a mentality of rugged individualism, of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, of not needing help to get ahead and instead going it alone, and of course, of dog-eat-dog competition.
This is all part of the scarcity mentality.
It’s led to an unregulated economy, where people are free to get theirs and to grab it before someone else gets it.
Because of this mentality, you have the current abomination in the U.S., where billionaires basically call the shots and pay very little, if any taxes—all legally; where kleptocrats, both in the U.S. and around the world, can safely hide their ill-gotten gains—all legally; and the social contract—of people, businesses and government helping every person to thrive—is dissipating, to the point that it’s causing America’s partisan divisions to be heightened, leading to the possible collapse of democracy.
The answer to all this: we need to go from scarcity to abundance for all. We need to remember that we’re all in this together, that there’s enough for everyone, and that, as President John F. Kennedy once said, “a rising tide lifts all boats.”
In the near 250-year history of the U.S., there was a time when the prevailing mindset was abundance for all. This was during during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, when abundance was public policy. In that era, because the idea of abundance for all was imbued in the public zeitgeist, gainful possibilities for every citizen was the norm.
When FDR came into office during the Great Depression, he changed the orientation of government. The Great Depression began in 1929, but because the Republican president at the time, Herbert Hoover, saw the world through the lens of scarcity, he refused to accept the fact that the government needed to help the great majority of people who were suffering.
Hoover stated “Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement.” People lost their jobs, their life savings, their homes and more, and yet Hoover wouldn’t lift a finger to help anyone.
He acted this way because of that scarcity mentality: in his mind, people should have had to make do and figure it out for themselves. It didn’t matter that the Great Depression was caused by bankers and the financial speculations of the wealthy that spun out of control; to Hoover, all the people suffering were shit out of luck.
Of course, the bankers and wealthy still had abundance on their side: Hoover made sure they were taken care of and bailed out.
It was to this landscape that Roosevelt became president on March 4, 1933. On that day, in his inaugural speech, Roosevelt promised to expel the “money changers” from the political system, saying, “They knew only the rules of self-seekers and had no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.” He swiftly moved to wrest control of monetary policy away from Wall Street and enacted policies that allowed for shared prosperity for all.
When FDR was up for reelection in 1936, he was vehemently opposed by banks, the business community, and the majority of the nation’s media, all who held fast to a scarcity mentality: in FDR’s opponents’ thinking, the government was being too generous and too helpful to the common people.
FDR knew what he was up against. During his reelection campaign he said, "America was in a struggle against business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering,” and that a wealthy elite “had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs.”
He concluded his speech by saying, “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
FDR won reelection in 1936 in a landslide, due to his federal policy that championed prosperity for all. His policies ennobled a citizenry that was overwhelmingly grateful for these policies—and this was reflected in FDR’s resounding reelection.
Because the 1930s was the greatest period of mass enlightenment in the history of the U.S., one in which the will of everyday people was strong and the social cohesion was firmly bonded, the groundswell of support for FDR led to that stunning defeat of his adversaries amidst his landslide reelection.
That was then. In modern times, scarcity is firmly entrenched. As I said earlier, capitalism is not a holistic system—it is predicated on scarcity. And with capitalism running amok—we live in an age of unfettered greed, with a predatory capitalism that takes no prisoners—scarcity has taken hold front and center.
The thinking that reigns supreme now is “we can’t help others,” and “there’s not enough money to help those who need it.” For instance, the expanded child tax credit that went into effect in 2021, one which gave families $300 a month for each child under six and $250 a month for each child over six, cut child poverty rates by 30%. It cost the government $160 billion a year to pay for it.
But sadly, it wasn't renewed for 2022, because of the there’s not enough money to help those who need it mentality.
In many ways, we’re all stuck in the world of scarcity. We work jobs we often feel locked into, often at long hours. We think this is the only way—and of course, since money is necessary to pay the bills, it is.
But does it have to be this way? One of FDR’s key economic advisors was the esteemed economist John Maynard Keynes, and Keynes gave extensive thought to what a post-scarcity society that was focused on abundance for all would look like.
In an essay he wrote in 1930, “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” he saw a coming age of abundance within 100 years, a time when people worked only 15 hours a week because the standard of life was so improved that no one worried about making money.
With so little need to work, Keynes reasoned that people would have to figure out how to use their free time. He wrote, “For the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem—how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won.”
In Keynes’s thinking, society would reach a point where abundance would become the norm rather than the privilege of a few; people would thrive as a result.
You can start practicing abundance in your own life right now. It begins by opening your heart, opening your mind, and thinking beyond yourself. You then can see everyone as interconnected, part of a great universal experience.
Of course, in that sense of unity you may feel with others, it’s still a truism that we’re all unique, with different needs and different aspirations. But ultimately, we’re all connected in the dream of a common humanity, one in which all can thrive and in which we all care for one another, as brother and sister.
That’s where the abundance perspective begins.
In this telling, this would put us in a post-scarcity, post-capitalist society and world.
And we would all be far better off for doing so.