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Abundance and Its Discontents
By the 1950s, abundance had become a technical puzzle for economists to solve, not a cause for celebration that promised emancipation from the imbecilic imperatives of eight-hour days devoted to the production of superfluous goods. This is where abundance goes to die, and a new book helps to bury it.
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NEW YORK – The idea of abundance has a long, complicated history in this “new” part of the world. The Europeans who invaded and conquered North America were uniformly astonished by the cornucopia they found: skies darkened by flocks of birds, waters crowded with schools of fish, forests and meadows crawling with all kinds of small game. But those who came to settle, to subdue and cultivate the earth – especially those who had decided to subdue and cultivate New England – were also worried. They feared that the sheer extravagance of the place would steer minds away from the obligations of this world, specifically from the rigors of necessary labor.