[Part 2 of the Promoting Broad Prosperity review]
Topos’ Promoting Broad Prosperity framework avoids a major problem with my approach. For the past few months, I’ve been focused on understanding how the nuts and bolts of the economy’s engine works. I think I’ve started to figure it out. But I haven’t yet figured out how this engine is connected to the steering wheel or the breaks, let alone how to connect the system’s aerodynamics — the shaping of a body to help it go faster — to its styling. And ultimately I think choosing an economic framework is like choosing a car. You don’t want it because of its engine or aerodynamics. You want it because it’ll get you to where you want to go and because it makes a statement about what matters to you.
I think Topos’ “the middle-class is no accident” frame is the first step in helping me figure out how to connect the engine to what folks really care about. There’s no preamble. They don’t start with “the economy.” They go straight to what matters to most U.S. folks — the “middle class,” by which most Americans mean building a society where everybody can make it. Then Topos immediately connects it back to how the economy really works. Their framework never goes into the depth or nuance I think we’ll need for a truly powerful way of thinking about the economy. But that’s not what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to hit people where they live — and do it quickly.
The frame also sets you up nicely for slapping down a counterattack. If somebody says to you, “you just want more big government,” you can say,
So you think giving 4.4 million veterans a college grant after World War II was a mistake? Or FHA loans so for the first time millions of Americans could own their own home? Are you saying that didn’t happen? Or are you against the middle-class?
Who wants to be on the receiving end of that?
The frames of the Intentional Middle-Class and Public Structures also keeps the conversation focused on the whole. If Topos just talked about, say, schools, somebody could play the Exception card — I mostly don’t want government, but it’s okay for education. If they just talked about healthcare, some folks might say they think healthcare should be up to individuals. But having a strong middle-class? It covers so many facets of government that it’s the rule, not the exception. And it doesn’t come in individual servings; it’s something we’ve gotta Choose Together.
