Scarcity is the opposite of abundance, and it is largely a myth! As long as there is “not enough,” we are doomed to societal disequilibrium. It does not have to be that way!
Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash
First, a little bit of theology. That is my discipline, after all.
Scarcity is a big lie, and it keeps us suspicious and afraid. It is often the source of bellicose tension between nations.
Theologian Walter Brueggemann has observed that scarcity is, heretical vis-a-vis the abundance of God’s kingdom. This presupposes an understanding that the perfection and vastness of Creation embraces a kind of divine goodness that defeats the very real human struggle to live in harmony with the Universe—and with each other.
It is not a matter of denying suffering—on the contrary— it is a worldview that the High and Holy One has created a marvelous world, one fully capable of caring for and nurturing all of the created order.
Where suffering exists, the culpability lies with us.
Poet Robert Frost wrote:
I turned to speak to God,
About the world’s despair;
But to make bad matters worse,
I found God wasn’t there.
God turned to speak to me
(Don’t anybody laugh)
God found I wasn’t there—
At least not over half.
—Robert Frost, Not All There, 1936
The point, of course, is that humans are responsible for ordering the world in which they live within the broader goodness—and abundance—of Creation. The worldview is unabashedly theistic, and I recognize that will not resonate with everybody. I submit that the truth of universal abundance prevails nonetheless.
The more we convince ourselves that there is not enough to go around—you name the commodity—the more likely we are to create a society that is in disequilibrium. Many of us remember long gas lines, and we all know the frustration of empty store shelves. Sometimes, those things are actually scare, but the underlying cause is usually an ethical failure on some level. In the most egregious cases, it involves devious market manipulation.
In America, since the 1970s, we have begun to sense that something is wrong as wages remain stagnant and the wealth gap widens. The ability to purchase a home, pay for college, procure health insurance, or just to live comfortably has become much more difficult. In the depths of this malaise, we detect the voice of the one who declares that “I alone can fix it!”
Many of us did not notice that the wealthiest among us have become even wealthier.
This all has to be somebody’s fault, right? The problem is that most of us have placed the blame on the wrong shoulders—with the heavy influence of Ronald Reagan and the neoconservatives in Congress, along with the complicity of the neoliberals!
We have fallen victim to the perception that the economy is a pie. Some will necessarily receive larger slices than others. But what if such thinking is fundamentally wrong?
It might surprise many to learn that much of the economic scarcity with which we contend is actually manufactured. Because scarcity in not exclusively economic, it also extends to social justice. In contrast, the ethic of abundance includes greater upward mobility, as evidenced by equitable wealth distribution, access to debt-free higher education, and access to affordable healthcare, etc.
To suggest that we simply cannot accomplish these goals because they are impractical is a matter of claiming scarcity of resources where it does not exist—and that is a spiritual and ethical matter!
We are far more capable of addressing the inherent inequity of post-modern communal life, but we often resort to scapegoating and false solutions. Can we be honest and finally admit that “trickle-down economics” has not worked, no matter how many times we have tried it?
And how about the legitimacy of the social contract in which we create government functions to care for those who need it? Most of us accept that as the proper role of government.
So, why are we even considering cutting social programs that will clearly disadvantage millions of Americans and create even greater disequilibrium?
Dysfunctional governance serves only those who are in power by virtue of their political influence and their enormous wealth. Speaker Mike Johnson has recently denied publicly any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, claiming that the only aim of the so-called “big, beautiful bill” was to address “fraud and abuse.” He is completely disingenuous.
Conservatives revere the legendary “free market.” The truth is that markets simply do not exist without regulation, and markets are often manipulated! Abundance extends to non-economic realities, and it is achievable across the board—despite what the morbidly rich would have us believe. Because when we behave as though there is” not enough,” we are hampered in what we can achieve for the commonweal.
The bastard is not being disingenuous. He's lying like hell