for me, it's impossible to think of abundance without also thinking of costs, to the planet in particular. Haven't read the book yet, but any discussion of abundance must also include balancing human needs with that of other species and the environment. Because only that balance will ensure that the human species has a future here. No one's going to Mars anytime soon except in their fantasies. Relatedly, the idea of abundance must be separated from the idea of perpetual growth. Such a hard thing for us to separate ourselves from -- that we must continue to be bigger, better, faster, than we were last year. The corporatist fear that having exactly what we need = a loss of profit, that fear seems like the obstacle to an argument that we already have enough for everyone. (which ima guessing is what "abundance" is about)
As a person who has studied housing, interviewed buyers + builders + city planning folks in areas of serious wealth and racial division that is only really understood when you walk neighborhoods, this book avoids examination of the entrenched power players that refuse to build workforce affordable housing and multigenerational housing despite demand.
The free market of transit + housing + community building fails by design in American, and the constant lies about European “socialism” ignores the facts of how housing grew out of alms housing for the elderly - it was an act of faith to care about the members of your community. They then tried multiple supports and market designs and still review what needs tweaking. They did not just abandon people and access to basic standard of care.
Abundance means that people have a living wage where only 25% of their earnings goes to shelter. They can save, have a family vacation, access basic healthcare and not be afraid of old age.
I have not read the book yet, but I came up with an idea for the future yesterday after talking with a woman on Jay Kuo's forum. I have not developed this yet, but here it is. How about a cooperative marketplace in which members offer goods and services? This would be a member-owned space similar to Amazon or eBay, but the stockholders are the merchants, service providers, and workers. No billionaire owners, no exploited workers. What do you all think?
Really? I didn't know that. I thought it was like eBay--owned by a company that takes a percentage of each sale. I buy from there all the time. If that's true, I'll buy even more.
I think there is a transaction fee but the focus of Etsy is vintage, handmade items etc. That’s my understanding. If you discover differently, let me know 🩷
A lot of the items are handmade and vintage. But whether the business is owned by the merchants, that I've never heard. My idea is that everyone who sells things or offers services or otherwise works for the company owns part of it and shares in the profits.
Jackie, I looked into Etsy a little. It's a public company that's listed on the stock exchange. While it claims to be ethical, it isn't owned by its members but rather its stockholders.
I have requested the book from my local library, which I have rediscovered as a "free" source of abundance. Hoping that the book meets the moment and is rigorous. I believe abundance is relative. The abundance of the US as-is more than appeals to many who risk their lives to cross our border to live what we would see as impoverished and they experience as wealth. Is abundance material? What we are rightly concerned about in the current regime is not abundance as much as the intangible threat of loss of freedom (something minorities- Black Americans, immigrants, Muslims, et al. - face every day). So, can abundance be discussed without justice? Who gets to set/enforce the rules? I'm very curious how abundance is defined and discussed, as well as remedies.
Abundance is a beautiful word. When I say it, it brings me comfort and ease. It relaxes me and I feel content. But what does an entire world of abundance look like? Is it a society, via government, that meets my basic needs of safety and physical health? I am afforded a basic education, housed, fed, and have medical care. The Earth is not polluted and crime rates are low. That feels abundant to me. That can be the role of a successful government. But what about my dreams? And everyone else's dreams? Maybe that's left to a society of people as a whole and to individuals, each their own contribution.
Long unwinding of thought here, forgive me. The concept of abundance spoke to my Hindu heritage, where the goddess Lakshmi is invited into every household, where prosperity is celebrated and not seen as something suspect. But Lakshmi’s blessings sour if we ignore the other goddess, the Earth, as we’ve seen to our great cost. I’ll be reading this right after rereading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler for a book discussion being organized by the Democrats Abroad Global Women’s Caucus. Two very different books, both speaking to the same crisis moment we’re in.
If everyone seeing this will remember to ask your local library to purchase these “books of the month” and make them available for everyone we can support the authors and spread the word at the same time.
Abundantia is the Latin term for fullness and plenty so should I expect the book to lay out a future vision for our world that provides f & p to all? Hmm. Since Christ was born there has been a wealth/status gap. Opportunity for all? Yes. Grain for all? No. I hope this club focuses more on what we all have in common rather than what divides us.
Whatever it is, it must be more than material things or paid services. Americans are awfully busy for only needing food, shelter, clothing. At their core people thrive when they have connection with each other and a life purpose. Let’s not mistake bells and whistles for very humble needs.
Wonderful and a rare hopeful perspective. Terrific information to help shift our perspective to new possibilities. What was most missing for me was how to get from here to there. We need a better game plan on what to do in the face of the crisis being delivered by the Trump administration!
Book suggestions: How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra, Doppleganger by Naomi Klein, On Freedom by Timothy Snyder, The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher, Saving Us by Katherine Hayhoe, and (of course!) Winners Take All and The Persuaders!
I cannot add a PNG to this comment but to give y'all a sense of sharing in the abundance:
The Nashville Public Library has:
- 19 copies of the book; 79 people on the wait list;
- 17 copies of the ebook; 114 people on the wait list;
- 17 copies Kindle; 114 people on the wait list;
- 29 copies of the Audio book; 198 people on the wait list.
Seems I will be purchasing this book, bless my heart. Maybe I will leave it in a Little Free Library in my neighborhood after this discussion. My favorite one still has a Pee-wee Herman sign next to it :-)
for me, it's impossible to think of abundance without also thinking of costs, to the planet in particular. Haven't read the book yet, but any discussion of abundance must also include balancing human needs with that of other species and the environment. Because only that balance will ensure that the human species has a future here. No one's going to Mars anytime soon except in their fantasies. Relatedly, the idea of abundance must be separated from the idea of perpetual growth. Such a hard thing for us to separate ourselves from -- that we must continue to be bigger, better, faster, than we were last year. The corporatist fear that having exactly what we need = a loss of profit, that fear seems like the obstacle to an argument that we already have enough for everyone. (which ima guessing is what "abundance" is about)
As a person who has studied housing, interviewed buyers + builders + city planning folks in areas of serious wealth and racial division that is only really understood when you walk neighborhoods, this book avoids examination of the entrenched power players that refuse to build workforce affordable housing and multigenerational housing despite demand.
The free market of transit + housing + community building fails by design in American, and the constant lies about European “socialism” ignores the facts of how housing grew out of alms housing for the elderly - it was an act of faith to care about the members of your community. They then tried multiple supports and market designs and still review what needs tweaking. They did not just abandon people and access to basic standard of care.
Abundance means that people have a living wage where only 25% of their earnings goes to shelter. They can save, have a family vacation, access basic healthcare and not be afraid of old age.
hope you'll bring these thoughts to our live discussion with the authors!
I have not read the book yet, but I came up with an idea for the future yesterday after talking with a woman on Jay Kuo's forum. I have not developed this yet, but here it is. How about a cooperative marketplace in which members offer goods and services? This would be a member-owned space similar to Amazon or eBay, but the stockholders are the merchants, service providers, and workers. No billionaire owners, no exploited workers. What do you all think?
Etsy is already like that unless you have a different idea for how it would work.
Really? I didn't know that. I thought it was like eBay--owned by a company that takes a percentage of each sale. I buy from there all the time. If that's true, I'll buy even more.
I think there is a transaction fee but the focus of Etsy is vintage, handmade items etc. That’s my understanding. If you discover differently, let me know 🩷
A lot of the items are handmade and vintage. But whether the business is owned by the merchants, that I've never heard. My idea is that everyone who sells things or offers services or otherwise works for the company owns part of it and shares in the profits.
👍
Jackie, I looked into Etsy a little. It's a public company that's listed on the stock exchange. While it claims to be ethical, it isn't owned by its members but rather its stockholders.
I have requested the book from my local library, which I have rediscovered as a "free" source of abundance. Hoping that the book meets the moment and is rigorous. I believe abundance is relative. The abundance of the US as-is more than appeals to many who risk their lives to cross our border to live what we would see as impoverished and they experience as wealth. Is abundance material? What we are rightly concerned about in the current regime is not abundance as much as the intangible threat of loss of freedom (something minorities- Black Americans, immigrants, Muslims, et al. - face every day). So, can abundance be discussed without justice? Who gets to set/enforce the rules? I'm very curious how abundance is defined and discussed, as well as remedies.
Abundance is a beautiful word. When I say it, it brings me comfort and ease. It relaxes me and I feel content. But what does an entire world of abundance look like? Is it a society, via government, that meets my basic needs of safety and physical health? I am afforded a basic education, housed, fed, and have medical care. The Earth is not polluted and crime rates are low. That feels abundant to me. That can be the role of a successful government. But what about my dreams? And everyone else's dreams? Maybe that's left to a society of people as a whole and to individuals, each their own contribution.
Long unwinding of thought here, forgive me. The concept of abundance spoke to my Hindu heritage, where the goddess Lakshmi is invited into every household, where prosperity is celebrated and not seen as something suspect. But Lakshmi’s blessings sour if we ignore the other goddess, the Earth, as we’ve seen to our great cost. I’ll be reading this right after rereading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler for a book discussion being organized by the Democrats Abroad Global Women’s Caucus. Two very different books, both speaking to the same crisis moment we’re in.
If everyone seeing this will remember to ask your local library to purchase these “books of the month” and make them available for everyone we can support the authors and spread the word at the same time.
Abundantia is the Latin term for fullness and plenty so should I expect the book to lay out a future vision for our world that provides f & p to all? Hmm. Since Christ was born there has been a wealth/status gap. Opportunity for all? Yes. Grain for all? No. I hope this club focuses more on what we all have in common rather than what divides us.
Maybe what we all have in common is our desire for “fullness and plenty” and what divides us is each person’s definition of it.
🧐
Will be an interesting discussion for sure. I hope people will stay open to interrogating their own defenses
Enough for everyone, forever while acknowledging everyone includes nonhumans.
Whatever it is, it must be more than material things or paid services. Americans are awfully busy for only needing food, shelter, clothing. At their core people thrive when they have connection with each other and a life purpose. Let’s not mistake bells and whistles for very humble needs.
Wonderful and a rare hopeful perspective. Terrific information to help shift our perspective to new possibilities. What was most missing for me was how to get from here to there. We need a better game plan on what to do in the face of the crisis being delivered by the Trump administration!
Burn Book, Kara Swisher
Book suggestions: How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra, Doppleganger by Naomi Klein, On Freedom by Timothy Snyder, The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher, Saving Us by Katherine Hayhoe, and (of course!) Winners Take All and The Persuaders!
Hoping that the abundance authors don’t regurgitate what they’ve been saying on their tours. Maybe more work for your team to figure that out.
I cannot add a PNG to this comment but to give y'all a sense of sharing in the abundance:
The Nashville Public Library has:
- 19 copies of the book; 79 people on the wait list;
- 17 copies of the ebook; 114 people on the wait list;
- 17 copies Kindle; 114 people on the wait list;
- 29 copies of the Audio book; 198 people on the wait list.
Seems I will be purchasing this book, bless my heart. Maybe I will leave it in a Little Free Library in my neighborhood after this discussion. My favorite one still has a Pee-wee Herman sign next to it :-)