Abundance Essays Part 6: Bubbles of Abundance

Abundance will emerge, because abundance is on a spectrum (A0 through A3). There are conditions that will help jumps in abundance to emerge and there are conditions hostile to it.

As per the previous writings (Roadblocks to Abundance, Preserving Market Forces in an Abundant Future, Foundations of Abundance): to have an abundant economy emerge requires:

1. A very Capitalistic economy
2. Lots of natural resources
3. A system for citizens to participate in the post-autonomy future
4. The will to build

This won’t happen on all of Earth all at once, it probably won’t be something achieved within a whole country all at once. There are too many different jurisdictions with different systems and access to natural resources.

It is natural that higher levels of abundance will emerge in countries that are well industrialized with robust capability to manufacture, because that's what the rapid increases in productivity will require.

For that reason it makes sense that higher levels of abundance will emerge in a place and then spread.

Bubbles of Abundance

There will be a physical jurisdiction that is compatible with the conditions necessary for abundance. It will require more than natural resources and large industrial base, it will require the right economic system and culture.

No place has all the conditions in place today, so it will take intention to cultivate. Also it will require that place to have everything it needs within that bubble. Then the bubble will grow.

All the previous jumps in abundance emerged in singular places and spread from there. The Renaissance in Italy, the Industrial Revolution in England, etc. The conditions were right, there was rapid improvement, then other places replicated those conditions and saw the same results.

Unlike previous jumps in abundance, it likely won't be in a bubble as small as a city. Abundance requires too many diverse natural resources to emerge: everything from fertile farmland and a coastline, to lithium and limestone, and intense sunlight. It will also require vast manufacturing capabilities (requiring a diverse set of specialized skills) and transportation networks to connect it all.

Once abundance starts to emerge though, prices will drop dramatically within that bubble for everything (food, housing, clothing, transportation, etc) and people will want to move in or copy the model.

Pushing the frontiers of abundance

Once A2 and A3 levels of abundance are achieved in some places, it is will take intention and effort to spread the bubbles of abundance. 

Every new person put into the bubble of abundance needs the commensurate increases in natural resource extraction, manufacturing capabilities, transportation networks, etc.

Expanding abundance may take many forms:

1. Parachuting into a place to support local efforts to climb the abundance scale.
2. Expanding the capacity of a bubble to handle immigration into the bubble.
3. Expanding a bubble geographically by helping nearby jurisdictions adopting the necessary conditions and planting the necessary new farms, mines, factories, etc.
4. Planting humanity onto barren wastes amogst the stars and building abundance from scratch.

After A3 and A4 are achieved in some places, it’ll be the noblest of pursuits to push the frontiers of abundance and help bring as many humans into that level of prosperity as possible.

Candidate locations

There are only two serious contenders at the moment, each leaning more heavily in different aspects of the pre-requisites: Texas and China.

Texas has the will to build, natural resources, and is one of the most capitalistic markets in the US. It lacks a Wall Street level capital markets, and has some work to go on cultivating the "all of the above" mindset for energy that we'll need.

China has the will to build, the premier industrial base in the world, the natural resources, and increasing capital market maturity. They still mess with the market too much to fully let prices fall to levels necessary for A2 and A3.

Runners up:

1. California: best hand ever dealt, you just can't build there.
2. The US at large: it may be that it'll take all the resources and industrial base in the US to make the leap. The states' varied jurisdictions will slow things down.
3. Gulf states: together they have what they need, but they're still separate kingdoms.

Game on

Abundance has never been closer, we need to focus on cultivating the right conditions and letting Capitalism do its work.