On this episode of The Permanent Problem podcast, I’m pleased to welcome Jonathan Chait of The Atlantic to discuss the abundance movement and the future of the Democratic Party.| brinklindsey.substack.com
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's bestselling new book Abundance has kicked off a new political movement — and a vigorous internal debate on the future of the Democratic Party.| The Permanent Problem
In 1963, the Royal Society in the United Kingdom issued a report complaining about the emigration of British scientists to the United States, lured by higher salaries and better living conditions.| brinklindsey.substack.com
While the formal separation of church and state is a vital element of America's constitutional order, the success of our long-running experiment in self-government has always depended on a healthy interdependence between republican freedom and religious faith.| The Permanent Problem
On April 2, President Trump proclaimed “Liberation Day” and announced the imposition of dramatically higher tariffs on imports into the country.| brinklindsey.substack.com
It’s always exciting when a book that began as a jumble of confusion inside your own head takes its first steps toward becoming a physical object in the real world.| The Permanent Problem
(Warning: this is a long one.| brinklindsey.substack.com
This is the first essay I’ve posted on this site since May 2024 — I’ve been away, turning the previous essays published here into a book.| brinklindsey.substack.com
The rightward shift in public opinion that carried Donald Trump back into the White House is being widely interpreted as a backlash against the "Great Awokening" of the past decade — a surge in radical progressive activism around social justice issues that featured a number of extreme and unpopular positions ("defund the police," "abolish ICE," support for Hamas after the October 7 attacks, etc.).| brinklindsey.substack.com
A new movement is taking shape around the idea of restoring "abundance." Uniting thinkers from across the political spectrum — including "supply-side progressives," "conservative futurists," and "state capacity libertarians" — the movement aims to jump-start technological and economic progress by removing artificial constraints on supply and improving the quality of government.| The Permanent Problem
I’m delighted to announce that I’ve signed a contract with Oxford University Press to turn The Permanent Problem into a book.| The Permanent Problem
Birth rates are plummeting around the globe, as half the world's population now lives in countries with sub-replacement fertility rates.| The Permanent Problem
Back in the late 1980s, I watched a PBS special on the human mind and learned about the terrible fate of Clive Wearing, a man unable to make new memories.| The Permanent Problem
Over the past half-century, societies around the world have made great strides in elevating the status of women and expanding their educational and employment opportunities.| The Permanent Problem
What determines our visions of the future, and how those visions change over time?| The Permanent Problem
In these essays I have used various turns of phrase to describe success in dealing with the permanent problem.| The Permanent Problem
"We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters." Peter Thiel's famous complaint hearkens back to the middle of the 20th century, when high economic growth seemed unstoppable and the future was filled with visions of moon bases, nuclear energy too cheap to meter, and yes flying cars.| The Permanent Problem
Since we’ve both been writing a lot about the topic recently, Robin Hanson invited me to sit down and chat with him about the global fertility decline and prospects for depopulation.| The Permanent Problem
“I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken.”| brinklindsey.substack.com
There’s something called wilderness therapy that offers a distinctive approach to helping troubled young people: make them live outside for a couple of months, camping and backpacking with therapists and a small group of peers.| brinklindsey.substack.com
I set out to write an essay on falling fertility and the implications of population decline — but one essay turned into two, and now two have turned into three. Here I’ll wrap up my survey of some of the stranger possibilities of life in an emptying world.| brinklindsey.substack.com
In my last essay I returned to the subject of the global fertility collapse, the unexpected and underappreciated trend that in my view confronts us with the permanent problem at its most devilish. What do I mean by that? Capitalism, by raising us into broad-based material prosperity, has provided us with sufficient resources and powers to allow the widespread development, exercise, and enjoyment of inborn capacities that would constitute mass human flourishing. We are thus confronted with wha...| brinklindsey.substack.com
In my recent essay on our growing predilection for virtual experience over the real thing, I ended with a question.| brinklindsey.substack.com
An Exercise in Definite Optimism (Part 3)| brinklindsey.substack.com
An Exercise in Definite Optimism (Part 2)| brinklindsey.substack.com
In recent essays I’ve been making an affirmative case for an “economic independence” movement — that is, a concerted effort to empower families and communities to be less dependent on market and state provision.| brinklindsey.substack.com
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.| brinklindsey.substack.com
An Exercise in Definite Optimism (Part 1)| brinklindsey.substack.com
Thanks for reading The Permanent Problem!| brinklindsey.substack.com
We are able to say that communist central planning failed because we can compare its results with those of capitalism.| brinklindsey.substack.com