The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing [Hardcover]

InThe Permanent Problem,Brink Lindsey examines what John Maynard Keynes termed the permanent problem : the idea that despite increasing material plenty, the ultimate human aim of mass flourishing is still a distant goal. Lindsey explores the roots of issues which have led to a current triple crisis, with systems favoring economic elites, declining economic dynamism, and degraded political mechanisms. Ultimately, this book provides an analysis on the current situation, the impacts, and potential pathways to solutions in the future.In The Permanent Problem, Brink Lindsey reshapes our understanding of the vital but complex relationship between material prosperity and human flourishing.The advanced capitalist democracies of the 21st century are the richest, freest, healthiest, best educated, and best governed societies in history. Why then does it seem like everything is falling apart? Economic stagnation is spreading, class divisions are deepening, birth rates are collapsing, mental health problems are on the rise, faith in democracy is in decline, and pessimism about the future abounds.InThe Permanent Problem, Brink Lindsey argues that these gathering difficulties reflect the stresses and strains of a great and uncompleted historical transition-from mass material prosperity to mass human flourishing. Capitalism's immense productive powers have raised our expectations of what life can be, but for most of us reality is coming up short. What's more, the arrival of mass prosperity has pushed both economic and cultural change in directions that make the transition to mass flourishing much harder to achieve.According to Lindsey, 21st century capitalism is in the grip of three interrelated crises: a crisis of inclusion, as vital social ties and personal connections are breaking down; a crisis of dynamism, as capitalism's engines of innovation and wealth creation have begun to sputter and seize; and a crisis of politics, as the mechanisms fló(