Prosperity: More than the economy

For several years much of the world has been concerned with strengthening our economies. Traditionally, the idea of economic development and progress deals exclusively with improving our material condition. This perspective holds that “prosperity” is a condition of having the material resources to meet and surpass our physical needs.

With this perspective, poverty is a state of having inadequate food, shelter and transportation. Prosperity is viewed as having really good food, a really nice house, and a super-duper way to get around. Development today is mostly concerned with this material transformation from poverty to prosperity—from bread and water to red-rice and fried chicken; from the tin house to the mansion on the hill; from the walking path to the Pathfinder.

It has been proposed that we take a broader view of the concept of prosperity—that we expand our thinking of prosperity beyond just “having better stuff.” A view of prosperity that goes beyond meeting material needs holds that because the true nature of reality is not merely a material reality, we think of prosperity as the awakening of our material and spiritual possibilities of all the inhabitants of our communities. Prosperity, in this view, is a condition of thriving, of flourishing, with regard to our material well-being, and also with regard to our human capacities, or our spiritual natures.

The idea of prosperity, in its fullest sense, can be defined as “an awakening of the possibilities of the spiritual and material well-being of all of the planet’s inhabitants, without distinction.”

What do you think about this perspective? How would our current approaches toward the economy and growth be changed if we took this fuller view toward the idea of prosperity—if we shift our attention a bit away from a material perspective of the nature of reality to a spiritual perspective of the nature of reality?

Traditionally, secular leaders have left concerns of the spiritual side of life to the spiritual and religious leaders. However, ultimately, we are all concerned with all aspects of improving the human condition. It leads to a distortion of the true nature of our reality when we focus our attention purely on our material needs, and don’t take into consideration the human spirit. Expanding our view of development and prosperity to include concerns of the heart, forces us to ask new questions and to seek new answers.

Dr. James Oh, a renowned psychiatrist and friend of mine, used to point out that, “Money doesn’t buy happiness… but it sure helps ease the pain.” It does remain true that the pain and burden of physical suffering can be lifted with economic development. But it can only take us so far. So often it appears that we do actually believe that money can buy happiness and that economic development alone can take us to fulfillment. And so, our public policy focuses on the economy as a means to making us happy, and sometimes at the expense of “awakening the possibilities of the spiritual and material well-being” of all our community’s inhabitants. Wouldn’t it be interesting to charge our government leaders not with the primary task of improving the economy, but rather with task of putting in place measures and policies that would help awaken the capacities in all of us, and to awaken the spiritual and material well-being that our community is capable of?

If true prosperity means awakening the possibilities of the spiritual and material well-being of all our islands’ inhabitants, without distinction, then our attention moves beyond simply measuring economic growth. What might it look like for our public policy to be based on other measures such as the level of satisfaction, the level of happiness, the flourishing of the human capacities in every individual in our community, the fulfillment of potential?

These questions are a bit more difficult to address and measure than purely economic ones, and perhaps it is too broad a charge. A starting point might be to simply begin to ask these questions as we consider the future of our communities and their well-being.

(David Khorram, MD is a board certified ophthalmologist, and director of Marianas Eye Institute. Questions and comments are welcome. Call 235-9090 or email eye@vzpacifica.net. Copyright © 2005 David Khorram.)