The Economic Imperative and the Global Dream

Economic success is imperative for modern life. This doesn’t mean that you have to be rich or that you should idealize and/or over-prioritize money. But you do have to achieve some baseline level of success and fluency when it comes to money. Period.

For all the threats we seen in the world, for all the things we like to complain and worry about—political polarization, climate change, the threat to democracy, the rise of autocracy, wars…—very few people are talking about the rather urgent economic problem staring us all in the face. The fundamental promise at the core of ALL modern civilization is that we are on a path of inevitable and inexorable material progress. Yeah, there might be setbacks now and then but the trend is most definitely up and each rising generation can take it to the bank that they will live at least slightly better than their parents did. What’s happening today is that we’re seeing a rapid erosion in faith for this idea. All around the world, the baseline level of economic success necessary for a good modern life is getting harder and harder for people to achieve. 

I cannot emphasize enough how serious of a problem this is. For the last several hundred years, we have constructed a global order based almost exclusively on the primacy of money and economic growth. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a democracy or not, without a credible belief in the possibility for economic success, there’s nothing to hold things together. As belief in the idea of material progress goes, so goes modern civilization. 

Ever since we emerged on the scene as a superpower of unprecedented cultural reach, the American Dream has become a Global Dream. What’s so unique about American mythology is that we are the first people who dared to believe that a society of mass prosperity was possible. The Dream wasn’t that we’d all be rich but rather simply that we’d have enough to live a materially dignified life, that we’d be free from the worst of the evils of extreme poverty and that each generation would have it better than the one before. Today, literally everyone in the world is chasing the same damn thing and our corroded global political and economic system just cannot take the pressure. The game is basically up or about to be.

Here in American the Dream is fully under attack. By one estimate it costs as much as $5M to achieve the standard vision:

For those keeping score, this a mere 60x the median annual household income. I don’t know about you all but 60 years sure seems like a long, long time to work!

Why has it gotten so hard to get ahead here in America? 

It’s much more of a practical matter than you might think. You see, the American Dream is under attack not because of technology, corruption, foreign influence, or global competition but rather simply because we have allowed key industries like housing, education, and health care to languish under a self-imposed sickness, one that involves everything from corruption to ineptitude and inefficiency to the worst kind of political interference in markets. We’ve broken these industries ourselves. 

What a profound collective failure. For me, the whole situation is exasperating because these are problems that are simply not beyond us. Do we really not know how to build more housing in this country or how to develop efficient business and governmental processes or how to improve our education system? Give me a break! We are a people who won a World War, sent people to the moon, produced untold inventions, and became the most powerful Nation in recorded human history. Our companies basically control the world economy and operate on a scale and complexity that is staggering in scope and power. No, these problems are not beyond our capabilities. We can fix this and we must.

By failing to address our collective loss of faith in a viable American Dream, we are pushing people down extreme roads that lead to nowhere. I see people increasingly making two big mistakes when it comes to money: they are either profoundly overemphasizing or fundamentally discounting its importance of money in leading a good life. There are those who see the accumulation of ever more money as literally the path to salvation and there are those who basically believe the exact opposite. Actually, they are both very wrong!

The truth about money is that it is neither necessary nor sufficient for leading a good life. Even a casual study of history and the human experience reveals that there’s just not that tight of correlation between money and things like happiness, meaning, or fulfillment. For every example you find on one extreme, you’ll find countless others in the opposite vein. So, money can be confusing and morally ambiguous. 

That being said, money, or at least what it represents, is as close to a motivational imperative that we can find in life. Above all else, we crave security and connection and money promises both. And, if dealt with in the right way, it’s a credible promise.

What people need to realize is that money may not be able to buy you happiness but it certainly can help!

This is true at an individual level and for society at large. Economics matters and matters a lot! Whatever your motivation—whether it’s working to better your own situation, or trying to support your family, or pursuing policy change for a better/fairer world—the economic imperative cannot be ignored. 

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