In a new book, Brink Lindsey argues that wealthy liberal democracies have essentially solved the problem of material provision and are now experiencing a nervous breakdown. But humans have always struggled with the challenge of living well and wisely.

WASHINGTON, DC – The great economist John Maynard Keynes argued in his 1930 essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren” that “mankind is solving its economic problem.” The accumulation of capital and the advancement of technology had put living standards on an upward trajectory that, according to Keynes, would end “the struggle for subsistence” within a hundred years.