…instead of which they have given us two hundred million of froth and bubble, on which we are to pay them heavy interest, until it shall vanish into air…
We are warranted, then, in affirming that this parody on the principle of ‘a public debt being a public blessing,’ and its mutation into the blessing of private instead of public debts, is as ridiculous as the original principle itself.
In both cases, the truth is, that capital may be produced by industry, and accumulated by economy; but jugglers only will propose to create it by legerdemain tricks with paper.”
–Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME 13:423
Beisner, Tom. “Thomas Jefferson’s Top 10 Quotes On Money And Banking by Missouri CPAs.” The Whitlock Company, 2 November 2009, https://www.whitlockco.com/thomas-jeffersons-top-10-quotes-on-money-and-banking/. Accessed 15 April 2023.
Abundancism, at the core, is a false reality that causes the majority of the masses that it infects to see the superficial as the substantive, or the excess as the measure of stability. Like the false realities in previous articles, the excess becomes the reason that the country is free and prosperous, thereby forgetting the values and principles that actually made the Republic thrive. Abundancism is a form of prosperity tyranny that oppresses large populations by putting an emphasis on the bottom line. A country, or group of countries that have achieved a level of societal wealth that enables them to have more than they need, enough variety to cause anxiety, and enough conveniences to produce medical conditions then the risk of abundancism is high.
Abundancism is not to be confused with an abundance mindset, which is the opposite of the poverty mindset. Conversely, abundancism causes the epidemic of the poverty mindset since both are in the same family as bottom-line thinking. Bottom-line thinking, is the same thing as a focus on profits, or capital, while the abundance mindset is thinking that there is enough for everyone. The abundance mindset is about continued service and trying to work yourself out of a job, and the poverty mindset is about making something as cheaply as possible (outsourcing/imported labor), and then getting as much profit as possible out of it. Abundance is about working hard and innovating to conquer market share while abundancism is merely about profitability and numbers.
Abundancism is often confused with capitalism. The term capitalism is what is usually used to refer to the free enterprise system of the United States, and typically other non-communist, or non-state-owned systems in the world. Abundancism is a lot like individualism in that it causes the practice of an alternate reality in itself, and is defended with the same veracity.
The alternate reality of abundancism is that prosperity and freedom in the United States are due to its supposed system of capitalism, which has to be false because capitalism is not and never was intended to be its form of economics. In fact, the constitution outlines our means of economic function and basically says what the governments can regulate, how they pay for the regulation thereof, and what the states basically can and cannot do.
Capitalism is not mentioned a single time in the constitution, and although free enterprise is also not mentioned it is implied. The very word capitalism, without looking it up, assumes “system of capital” as a definition. Why is this the problem? Because the economic system prescribed in the constitution was designed to keep the prices down, and the flow of goods and services smooth and competitive. Therefore, calling the US system of economics capitalism is simply calling it something that it is not.
Capitalism, as a form of economics, is about profit and encourages higher prices and corporatism, which is anti-competitive and makes manipulation easier. The “constitutional system” was for the good of the country while the system of capital, over time, becomes about the capital, and the people are merely where they get it from. This isn’t to say that capitalism is bad, it’s just not an economic system, and if it is, 99% of the population is not a practitioner o in it.
The other problem that abundancism causes is the pride of the self-proclaimed capitalist within the system of capital, who is usually undermining the rare and necessary skill of the actual capitalist. Not only does it cause self-delusion, but it also causes a widespread and chronic lack of needed skills and industry by placing an undue adoration on earnings, achievement, material accumulation, and status.
Another form of damage to this alternate reality is that the constitutional form of economics is forgotten and replaced with a prosperity doctrine and then is hailed and defended much like freedomism. The two become the perceived reason for a nation’s greatness. Then, while the nation is heralded as the champion of freedom and prosperity, and the defender of it around the world, the capital flows from the once-free champions to a very few giants through a system called consumerism.
Consumerism is the lifeblood of runaway debt and the result of chronic abundancism. While the consumeristic society is stamping down communism, the supposed enemy of capitalism, the government is writing checks to the few giants, who have become the saviors of the new and persisting problems of consumers. All the while, the beloved system of capital, because of the very debt and division that it caused, and the separation of the masses, is getting closer and closer to the dreaded communism that was to be avoided in the first place.
The pride in abundance, blind loyalty to the system of capital, and bitterness towards it are likely the main causes of the visceral debate that erupts when any person or entity dares to utter a word about it; no matter how true that utterance is, because freedom is expensive, and only capitalism can pay for it. Not only are the enlightened vilified by being accused of things they are completely innocent of but they are also labeled as socialists while in reality, they are closer to the Constitution than the so-called defenders of capitalism.
Worse yet, republican liberty continues to dissolve as a result of the forgotten Republican values, and the public is further distracted from the reality of debt, war, and deepening immorality that inevitably grows out of the allure of freedom and excess. This gives way to what is known as hegemonism, that place where the masses take credit for changing the world.