Prosperity Defined

ENODA is dedicated to the pursuit of Sustainable Prosperity for Every One*. In this series of articles we take the opportunity to explore what that means to us and why it underpins all of our work.

Prosperity is a personal, social, and economic condition that is expressed in its use and enjoyment by individuals, and the society wide circumstances under which it is built, maintained, and passed forward through time. More than simply a measure of wealth, a true measure of prosperity takes into account the well-being of individuals, and harmony of the society they live within. Terms like happiness, fulfilment, peace, order, realised potential, the common good, social justice, and liberty are all expressions of a broad understanding of prosperity.

There is often a two-way street between prosperity as it is experienced by individuals and the overall prosperity of society. Prosperous individuals within a prosperous society are best equipped to spur growth in personal fulfilment and common good. Properly understanding the defining qualities of prosperity is a step towards explaining how this compounding process can slow, falter or even recede within ostensibly prosperous societies. If we know what we are aiming for, then, singular and plural, we can make the best decisions to get there.

Differences in the definition of prosperity and the approaches to reaching it are a source of fundamental differences between distinct cultures. These definitions vary, on personal, social, and global scales, and those variations determine how prosperity is pursued. The stem of this pursuit is frequently planted in the political philosophies concerning the value of social order, and the influence of good governance and personal morality in determining prosperity. Themes of personal fulfilment, of reaching enlightenment, self-actualisation and the cultivation of personal virtue are mirrored across the foundational philosophic traditions of cultures globally, with separate derivations and answers, but also with convergence and cross pollination as our societies have grown closer together.

ENODA’s definition of prosperity draws upon the long history of the concept in philosophy and in economics. Successive minds have sought to comprehend and to quantify exactly what the end goal of human actions, governance policies, competition, and co-operation between individuals and civilisations is, and we have synthesized our definition both as an answer to these questions and as vision for the world we wish to improve.

In the west, the basic precepts of prosperity as a personal pursuit can be traced back to Greek philosophy and Socratic discourse. In Plato’s attempts to describe an ideal society, or at least an ideal city, social good is phrased not in terms of material wealth, but in terms of virtue and justice, and whether there is personal happiness to be found in working towards them. While the dialogue in “The Republic” is more theoretical that practical (and where it is practical it is seldom particularly applicable in a modern context), the idea that an ideal society is one that requires and rewards individual effort is an idea echoed in many subsequent discussions of prosperity.

Aristotle’s concept of Eudaimonia places a fullness of spirit, and a flourishing of the self, as the highest state of wellbeing at the end of a journey of personal improvement. This is one of the earlier definitions of what it means to be prosperous as an individual, here material wealth is simply a means to and end, albeit an important one.

In classical Greek philosophy the emphasis is placed on a personal duty to oneself and to society to develop moral virtue in the aid of common good. By contrast, many Enlightenment thinkers began to emphasise individual rights as both an expression of, and a contributor to, prosperity. For philosophers such as John Locke, the responsibility of government was therefor to protect those rights, whether property rights or rights to life, and liberty. In doing so, individuals free to pursue their own prosperity would increase societal wealth.

Building on Locke’s work, Montesquieu emphasized the importance of the stability of the social framework for the individual pursuit of prosperity. The rule of law and the separation and moderation of government powers were requisite to the freedoms that not only increased prosperity, but were a manner of prosperity themselves.

Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations marks a point of divergence between philosophical discourse on the essential nature of prosperity as a personal and social condition and the precise study of the mechanisms by which prosperity is accumulated, transmitted, evaluated and enjoyed. While Smith himself did not present economic theories detached from moral philosophy, the theories themselves became the inspiration and focus of work that did.

The novel field of economics was born at a time when material wealth was increasing at an unprecedented rate and was clearly the primary source of increases in social prosperity. As a result, for many economists then and since, the ideal of an empirical approach to the study of value required that material wealth, as a quantifiable measure, become the defining feature of prosperity. This necessitated drawing away from the more nuanced philosophical definitions of prosperity, and the divide has only grown over time. Much of what alienates people from mainstream economics is the obvious flaw in focusing almost exclusively on the material and monetary expressions of prosperity. As humans, we often feel prosperity as joy and peace and fulfilment, and the sense of cold calculation that accompanies economic discourse then strikes a discordant note in contrast.

However, the economics schools that retained contact with the philosophical elements of prosperity, such as those that focused on individual actions and the explicative power of markets, have continued to make valuable contributions to the concept of prosperity.

In the Enlightenment thinking commerce was the result of an ordered society, but in the work of Smith and his followers, this was shown to also work in the inverse. Commerce, and not simply the prosperity it produces, is a constant form of social interaction and transaction that by requiring a peaceful exchange softly enforces that same peace and can foster empathy and harmony.

Material wealth remains a worthwhile measure of prosperity because it represents the most practical set of resources for experiencing and creating prosperity, as personal means and social condition, because it measures the capacity to transact and to accumulate value.

Menger, and the Austrian school of economics, emphasised the subjective nature of value. No two people will place equal value on given goods or services, and this leads to situations where both sides gain from an exchange where they each give something the other values more in exchange for something they value more. You might not be able to compare apples with oranges, but you can certainly exchange them. While the exchange of an apple you prefer for an orange I prefer is an easy to understand example, it is also easy to understand how the exchange does not scale practically. The necessary next step for facilitating larger or more complex exchanges is currency, which depends upon the fair and open nature of a society and its economy to best function.

A prosperous society has an abundance of value and an abundant exchange of value, it is a free society where the individuality of each member of society creates infinite recombinant opportunities for them to find value, incrementally growing social prosperity at the same time. Prosperity is fostered when individuals can freely pursue their interests within a framework of ethical behavior, just institutions, and societal circumstances that protect rights, encourage voluntary exchange, and promote advancement. This condition benefits not only individuals but also the broader society by maximizing opportunities for flourishing for the greatest number of people.

Prosperity is a state in which individuals and societies achieve well-being, flourishing, and fulfillment through a harmonious integration of personal wealth, moral virtue, social cooperation, and freedom of choice. It encompasses both the subjective experience of well-being and the objective capacity to sustain and pursue it over time.

For ENODA, prosperity is both an ideal and a tangible goal, it is a bright future made by people who are empowered to do so. ENODA’s purpose is bringing sustainable prosperity to every one, and this definition is both how we know what to aim for, and the first steps to getting there.

* “every one” is a collective of singular individuals who all benefit from increases in prosperity, but experience it, benefit from it and importantly, contribute to it in different ways. Value is created when different people value the same things differently. Without those individualities, exchange would function in a different way and prosperity would mean something else entirely.