"The New American Dream"

The role of money and wealth needs more careful scrutiny. The classical economics approach pretty much puts monetary wealth at the heart of thinking. However, along with other of the base assumptions of economics, it needs questioning and supplementing. To be sure many people do make a crude equation between bigger salaries and more fulfilment or happiness or ability to make what they will of their lives. But:

There is little evidence that Edison or the Curies toiled at their experiments for the chance to get rich; Edison was sometimes too eager to plow money back into more experiments. What drove the Wright brothers to invent was not financial competition, but creative competition: the race to be first to fly. It's this kind of "competition" that truly motivates most scientists and inventors, and even football coaches, artists, and rappers. To keep our economy vital, the behavior that fundamentally needs to be incentivized and supported is not money-making but creative activity. When more people do the good work they enjoy, wealth will follow--not the other way around. Developing a vision for expanding opportunities for creative work is the great untapped political opportunity for both parties in the new century.

It's a kind of secular parallel to 'seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given you as well." -Seek first human flourishing and wealth will come as well. It's certainly paralleled in the management world where the 'humane' approach of supporting and expanding the capabilities of employees bears fruit in better work, and often more productivity in the longer term.
"The New American Dream" by Richard Florida:
Filed in: culture, cultural_creatives, development, economy, creativity