"Abundance politics may not win over conservative Christian voters." - Salon

[RandomNumbers]

8. They've completely twisted the concept of Abundance Mentality.

It's a shame.

Somehow I missed that book and any discussion when it came out. When I saw "Abundance politics" I thought, that's great! Then I read the OP and wanted to barf.

Abundance is about everyone having "enough" while finding a reasonable consumption level to be "enough". (far different than what the snip in the OP makes it sound like).

Abundance says yes, there is enough to go around for everyone. (including safeguarding the environment)

Sort of like the story of the loaves and fishes in the Christian religion. The non-miracle theory is that there was plenty of food that people had brought to the gathering, but nobody was sharing until someone started it and sharing became the social norm.

Applied to politics, the theory might be (okay it's been a while since I read up, so I'm sort of cobbling it together here): take away people's fear of not having enough ... by making sure they at least have a solid foundation (stuff like UBI and guaranteed health care), and people will find it a lot easier to just not be so greedy. In contrast, in today's society, people - even millionaires - constantly live in fear (mostly real, maybe partly imagined), of losing everything due to a catastrophe ... so that is why they constantly pursue "more". In today's society, unless you are in maybe the top 10% of wealth AND have trusted advisers, ANYONE is subject to "losing it all" suddenly. As long as that situation persists, it is very hard to get to the abundance mentality that would allow people to stop continually seeking "more".

I hope that is clear ... just feeling frustrated to see the abundance concept so perverted.