Principle 02 · Abundance & Ownership
Human-Scale Abundance
What should democratic power produce?
The conditions for an extraordinary life.
Why it matters
Technology should make the essentials of life more abundant, affordable and accessible.
The measure of progress isn't simply GDP. It's what an ordinary person can actually do with the wealth technology creates.
- Housing
- Energy
- Healthcare
- Education
- Mobility
- Time
- Community
Citizen benefit
Growth that shows up as a lower rent burden, a shorter commute, and more evenings free — not just a higher index value.
Measurement
- Cost of essentials as a share of median income
- Time required to earn a decent standard of living
- GDP growth vs. household purchasing power growth
Measured by
Strongest counterargument
GDP is an imperfect but legible, comparable, hard-to-game measure. Swapping it for a human-scale basket invites politically convenient redefinition of 'progress.'
Response
This principle doesn't discard GDP — it demotes it from sole scorecard to one input among the Quality of Life Dashboard's measures, which are published, tracked over time, and open to challenge, not adjusted quietly.
Open questions
- Which basket of goods fairly represents 'the essentials' across very different regional costs of living?
- How do you keep a human-scale index from being gamed the way some inflation measures have been?
Think this principle gets it wrong?
Challenge it