The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing

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. In The 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