I finally found a phrase that articulates the purpose of my work: make abundance happen.

Abundance doesn’t mean unlimited. It means more than enough. I am lucky enough to have abundance of drinking water and internet. I have so much access to both water and internet that I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t have to count it. I can just count on it.

The opposite of abundance is scarcity. Scarcity is the idea that there’s not enough for everyone, and even if there was, everyone will still try to get as much as they can and deprive others of what they need. Interestingly enough, almost all economic theory (including Marxist economic theory) starts with scarcity. We should reconsider this starting point.

Abundance is the great empowerer. Oppression relies on scarcity. If someone enjoys abundance of resources and rights, it’s going to be very difficult for someone else to force they hand. However, if someone is dependent on a wage or on an official document, they are suddenly very vulnerable to others who might grant or deny this wish.

Abundance is both a mindset and a creative challenge. The mindset of abundance begins understanding that scarcity is a choice. We can choose scarcity as our starting point and believe there’s not enough to go around, and stay mired in scarcity. Or we can choose to believe that abundance is possible, and make it happen.

I believe abundance is the answer and the way forward for the human species in this century. This is the century where we have the opportunity to create abundance for all. Three manifestations of abundance will be the elimination of poverty, the restoration of nature to a thriving state and the elimination of toil (unwanted work). This requires major creative work: we’re soon going to be eleven billion humans in one planet. How can we make it that it works for all of us, as well for the millions of other species on Earth? Now that’s an interesting thing to work on.

I see two main groups of objections to abundantism: 1) it’s impossible; 2) we should first focus elsewhere.

Concerning #1, I beg to differ. There are already emerging instances of abundance: for example, in most countries, there are more than enough vaccines to prevent diseases. More than enough internet. More than enough drinking water. More than enough food. And there’s no reason for that to be the end of the line. We can keep on building systems that will generate abundant housing, education, transport and (yes) doing what we want instead of working of a living. This debate is best resolved in the terrain of things, by making abundance happen through direct economic action.

Concerning #2, it is true that starting with access to basic resources is quite materialistic. It’s somewhat an equivalent of treating an existential heart-ache with a recommendation to sleep eight hours a night and eat a healthy diet. Is this blind pragmatism? Perhaps. But what if it actually works? In my lifetime, most of the regression in rights happened because large minorities feel their livelihoods threatened. The fear of scarcity, manipulated by small minorities, rolls back rights for the most. In an abundance society, these strings cannot be so easily tugged. Getting those eight hours of sleep might set a much firmer terrain for other rights, and to defend the ones we already won.

I will write a much longer piece about abundance (a manifesto, actually), but I want to share this already.