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Much of this book is about the social responsibility of the rich, roughly the top 1 percent of American households, who have never had it so good. They sit at the top of the heap at the same time that around 100 million Americans live in poverty or in its shadow.1

I have no quarrel with wealth per se. Many wealthy individuals are highly creative, talented, generous, and philanthropic. My quarrel is with poverty. As long as there is both widespread poverty and booming wealth at the top, and many public investments (in education, child care, training, infrastructure, and other areas) that could reduce or end the poverty, then tax cuts for the rich are immoral and counterproductive.

This book is also about planning ahead. I’m a firm believer in the market economy, yet American prosperity in the twenty-first century also requires government planning, government investments, and clear long-term policy objectives that are based on the society’s shared values. Government planning runs deeply against the grain in Washington today. My twenty-five years of work in Asia have convinced me of the value of long-term government planning—not, of course, the kind of dead-end central planning that was used in the defunct Soviet Union, but long-term planning of public investments for quality education, modern infrastructure, secure and low-carbon energy sources, and environmental sustainability.

The Mindful Society

“The unexamined life is not worth living,” said Socrates.2 We might equally say that the unexamined economy is not capable of securing our well-being. Our greatest national illusion is that a healthy society can be organized around the single-minded pursuit of wealth. The ferocity of the quest for wealth throughout society has left Americans exhausted and deprived of the benefits of social trust, honesty, and compassion. Our society has turned harsh, with the elites on Wall Street, in Big Oil, and in Washington among the most irresponsible and selfish of all. When we understand this reality, we can begin to refashion our economy.

Two of humanity’s greatest sages, Buddha in the Eastern tradition and Aristotle in the Western tradition, counseled us wisely about humanity’s innate tendency to chase transient illusions rather than to keep our minds and lives focused on deeper, longer-term sources of well-being. Both urged us to keep to a middle path, to cultivate moderation and virtue in our personal behavior and attitudes despite the allures of extremes. Both urged us to look after our personal needs without forgetting our compassion toward others in society. Both cautioned that the single-minded pursuit of wealth and consumption leads to addictions and compulsions rather than to happiness and the virtues of a life well lived. Throughout the ages, other great sages, from Confucius to Adam Smith to Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama, have joined the call for moderation and compassion as the pillars of a good society.

To resist the excesses of consumerism and the obsessive pursuit of wealth is hard work, a lifetime challenge. To do so in our media age, filled with noise, distraction, and temptation, is a special challenge. We can escape our current economic illusions by creating a mindful society, one that promotes the personal virtues of self-awareness and moderation, and the civic virtues of compassion for others and the ability to cooperate across the divides of class, race, religion, and geography. Through a return to personal and civic virtue, our lost prosperity can be regained.

CHAPTER 2.

Prosperity Lost

There can be no doubt that something has gone terribly wrong in the U.S. economy, politics, and society in general. Americans are on edge: wary, pessimistic, and cynical.

There is widespread frustration with the course of events in America. Two-thirds or more of Americans describe themselves as “dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States,” up from around one-third in the late 1990s.1 A similar proportion of Americans describe the country as “off track.”2

This is coupled with a pervasive