Derek Thompson introduced the term “abundance agenda” in his 2022 Atlantic article “A Simple Plan to Solve All of America’s Problems”. In Thompson’s view, just as our problems did not stem from any particular political party, solving scarcity would require sourcing ideas from across the political spectrum:
… this agenda would try to take the best from several ideologies. It would harness the left’s emphasis on human welfare, but it would encourage the progressive movement to “take innovation as seriously as it takes affordability,” as Ezra Klein wrote. It would tap into libertarians’ obsession with regulation to identify places where bad rules are getting in the way of the common good. It would channel the right’s fixation with national greatness to grow the things that actually make a nation great — such as clean and safe spaces, excellent government services, fantastic living conditions, and broadly shared wealth.
Central to Thompson’s vision is the articulation of a common political cause. That is, despite – or perhaps beyond – all their different priorities, progressives, conservatives, and libertarians could surely agree that scarcity is a problem worth solving. These would all come together in what is called the abundance agenda.
What an abundance agenda argues for is growth
As Thompson concludes:
“The abundance agenda aims for growth, not because growth is an end but because it is the best means to achieve the ends that we care about: more comfortable lives, with more power to do what we want, with more time devoted to what we love.”
Various American responses to this challenge came together at the Abundance 2024 conference. In his ‘Opening Remarks’, Derek Kaufman, of the Inclusive Abundance Initiative stated the following principles:
Abundance looks at the choices we make to organize our society and asks:
- Which ones are still working as originally intended,
- What needs to be improved, and
- How can we streamline processes and refine systems to achieve better outcomes?
Much of this scarcity is self-imposed, and driven by a variety of factors, including:
- Antiquated Government Systems that can’t handle modern demands ,
- Misguided Narratives that suggest economic growth is incompatible with sustainability,
- Zero-Sum Thinking that implies when someone in America wins, someone else must lose,
- Political Divisiveness that fuels distrust and civic disengagement, and
- Red Tape that makes it costly and challenging to innovate and build
Abundance scrambles many traditional areas of left-right disagreement by using the best parts of the playbook from across the ideological spectrum, such as:
- Smart regulatory reform,
- High-return investments in public goods,
- Systems measured by their outcomes rather than their processes,
- A data-driven emphasis on thoughtfully evaluating tradeoffs and siding with what will do the most good for the most people,
- Complementary roles for the public and private sectors, and
- A culture of progress, innovation, and economic vibrancy.
Since reading Thompson’s article and the Discourse magazine special edition (Fall 2023) on The Abundance Agenda I became very interested in applying abundance thinking to New Zealand as offering a way forward past our longstanding policy churn, scarcity, societal inequity and economic underproductivity. To that end I have drafted, out of my reading of the Discourse discussion of The Abundance Agenda, what I term
An Abundance Agenda manifesto for Aotearoa
An abundance agenda: stands against the widespread pessimism occurring across all elements of modern life
An abundance agenda: seeks to recover and facilitate optimism about what can be possible for Aotearoa.
An abundance agenda: seeks to articulate a shared identity of optimism
An abundance agenda: understands that pessimism is the enemy of abundance.
An abundance agenda: argues that pessimism is not so much due to scarcity but rather due to policy choices made by local and central government; but also due to pessimistic decisions made business, by institutions and by citizens.
An abundance agenda: challenges the imposed scarcity made by policy and sub-policy decisions.
An abundance agenda: argues for local abundance in the face of national scarcity, local optimism in the face of national pessimism, local citizenship in the face of national disengagement.
An abundance agenda: challenges the existing system of vetocracy (the rule by veto)
An abundance agenda: argues for innovation and a rekindling of imagination
An abundance agenda: is based in intellectual curiosity, business dynamism, societal and economic growth – and the end of status quo thinking and action. In the face of orthodoxy, it argues for heterodoxy; in the face of caution, it argues for entrepreneurship; in the face of individualism, it argues for a rethought, reimagined dynamic community and society.
An abundance agenda: is based in the understanding that a change in ideas results in a change in practice; just as a change in practice demands a change in thinking.
An abundance agenda: seeks to grow and expand the resource of capable, innovative minds present in Aotearoa.
An abundance agenda: recognizes that there needs to be meeting places where ideas, possibilities, innovations and insights can be freely exchanged, debated, argued and articulated. Third places are the intellectual factories of abundance, where synchronist thinking and possibility can occur.
An abundance agenda: argues that thinking, action and possibility are facilitated by a modern republic of letters; this is based in new institutions and new outlets of communication and discussion where cities and regions can hear, critique, discuss and articulate new ideas and possibilities.
An abundance agenda: recognizes that social and economic wealth does not arise from resources, but from what is done to and with them, and this is due to human ingenuity.
An abundance agenda: seeks to make our cities and regions centres for human, social, cultural, economic, intellectual and technological ingenuity for Aotearoa. It recognizes that brains are the ultimate resource and that the ultimate source of wealth is the mind.
An abundance agenda: puts access to quality state education front and centre and asks challenging questions and offers options where this is not delivered. It does this because abundance is based in the flourishing of human capital and potential.
An abundance agenda: seeks to attract and retain the best minds and skills by ensuring our tertiary institutions are not just ‘adding value for export’.
An abundance agenda: engages with tertiary institutions to create a work-integrated learning cities and regions to the mutual benefit of all. It seeks the integration of the city and region with its tertiary institutions to develop its human, social and economic capital and innovation.
An abundance agenda: seeks to identify and tackle the local and national causes of low productivity and institute collaborative, innovative workplace practice and institutions to drive local dynamics in economic, social and cultural capital for Aotearoa.
An abundance agenda: seeks to triangulate socio-economic analysis, futures thinking and best practice RD&I possibilities to activate the local and national economy.
An abundance agenda: understands that transport is central to the success of a city and region and so seeks transport infrastructure and planning solutions that ensures social and economic flourishing. It does not see transport options as in conflict but rather in partnership.
An abundance agenda: recognizes the fundamental importance of access to reliable and affordable energy, asking what steps can local government and businesses take to ensure energy abundance and the productive use of energy.
An abundance agenda: recognizes the inter-relationship of energy and water for social and economic prosperity.
An abundance agenda: seeks local solutions for issues of housing and energy scarcity, asking what can WE do here, rather than wait for central government inaction.
An abundance agenda: recognizes the fundament need of housing for a healthy and prosperous society and economy. It argues for YMBY not NIMBY policy, for suburban rezoning, and the facilitation of housing as possibility–not penalty– for all ages.
An abundance agenda: seeks local housing affordability that facilitates daily lives of balance and flexibility.
An abundance agenda: builds for and with people and where they want or need to be. If we want a successful abundant, high-wage Aotearoa then we have to ensure our citizens also have a high material standard of living.
An abundance agenda: recognizes that to ensure Aotearoa becomes and remains an abundant nation, it needs to add to housing stock and desirability factors every year. But it also seeks to limit housing contagion migration that disadvantages locals in the face of migrant prosperity.
An abundance agenda: recognizes that the arguments against economic growth are too often made by those who are already better off in society. In contrast, it promotes growth, seeking to extend abundance to all.
An abundance agenda: champions growth that not only improves our material lives but also drives social cohesion, purpose, innovation, openness and tolerance, and is grounded in democracy. It sees economic growth as centrally integrated with an ethics of human and environmental wellbeing.
An abundance agenda: is based in innovation-based productivity across economic, social and cultural sectors, underscored by innovation-based infrastructure, governance and civic institutions.
An abundance agenda: is based in the understanding that we prioritize human flourishing to enable individuals, communities and this city to reach its potential.
An abundance agenda: integrates and facilitates social and economic entrepreneurship in an environment of enabling dynamic possibilities. It asks, how can our cities, regions and nation support, attract and retain new work, ideas and income generating individuals and businesses.
An abundance agenda: asks what limits productivity, across all sectors, of our cities. It then seeks local innovative solutions that can make each city distinct from elsewhere.
An abundance agenda: is focused on meeting social and cultural challenges as much as economic ones and is centred on human creativity in action. It therefore seeks an improvement in our health, environment and knowledge alongside economic growth.
An abundance agenda: puts a premium on caring about the future and not squandering the present; it nurtures the social, cultural and political institutions that promote growth and share prosperity within an ethic of sustainability.
Yes, this is very much a wish-list, and it can of course be easily dismissed as overly utopian. But I would much rather that we live in a society of mutual abundance and optimism than our current experience of pessimism and scarcity. For if small-change versions and variations of where we are and how we are is the best we can do or hope for, then we have squandered our past, self-limited our present, and sold-out our future.
