The Christmas season is a time to reflect on what we have, which includes the kind of society that has made countless blessings possible. The warmth, security, and generosity that many Americans experience during the holidays are not accidents or pure gifts of nature. In their tangible sense, they are the products of a long and extraordinary period of economic growth—one that has expanded opportunity, reduced hardship, and given moral ideals room to breathe.
History shows quite clearly that the societies most capable of generosity and liberalism are not those trapped in poverty but those that have escaped it. An abundance of wealth does not corrupt moral life; it enables it. Economic growth is not a rival to our highest values; it is a precondition to their most vigorous pursuit. This truth is easy to forget precisely because modern growth has been so successful. We take for granted the material abundance that allows us to debate its spiritual costs. For most of human existence, life was defined by constant vulnerability. Hunger, disease, and early death were ever-present. The idea that ordinary people could expect anything different—let alone genuine comfort or opportunity—would sound fantastical to our preindustrial ancestors.
As economic historians like Deirdre McCloskey have shown, the dramatic acceleration of growth beginning in the 19th century—the “Great Enrichment”—transformed human prospects on a scale unmatched by any previous moral or political revolution. Living standards rose exponentially, poverty declined, and education spread. With this abundance came a greater capacity for tolerance, pluralism, and peaceful coexistence. This connection is not accidental. In “The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth,” Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman shows that societies experiencing sustained growth tend to be more committed to liberal values. When people believe the future can be better than the past, politics becomes less of a zero-sum fight over fixed resources, and cooperation becomes easier.
The reverse is also true. When growth slows, even affluent societies begin to fray. Zero-sum thinking returns—not necessarily because people are poor, but because progress no longer feels assured. In a stagnant economic environment, politics turns inward and resentful. Scapegoats are sought, historically including immigrants, minorities, trade, and the successful. Seen in this light, today’s anxieties are less mysterious. After decades of slowed productivity growth, many Americans no longer feel confident that their work will be rewarded or that the future will be more abundant than the past. Nostalgia on the right and a sense of oppression on the left are both responses to a perceived closing of opportunity.
To reverse these destructive reactions, we must rebuild the conditions for abundance. This requires no massive new spending or protectionism; it only requires removing government obstacles to work, building, and innovation. In labor markets, this means eliminating occupational licensing that bars entry into modest jobs and reforming scope-of-practice rules that limit access to health care. No less essential is energy abundance. Modern economies run on energy, yet the United States increasingly constrains supply through permitting delays. Cheap, reliable energy—from fossil fuels, nuclear, or renewables—is a prerequisite for housing, manufacturing, and medical care.
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Veronique de Rugy is the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
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