Collective Prosperity — Building a World That Works for All
Part 5 of the Lie of Poverty Series
When I began this series, I wanted to approach abundance and prosperity from a new angle, one that exposed the Lie of Poverty for what it is: not spiritual truth, but a social and mental construct we’ve been conditioned to accept. New Thought spirituality spends a great deal of time focusing on “manifesting abundance,” but far too little time dismantling the systems of oppression that produce and perpetuate lack—both for individuals and for the ecosystem of us all.
Yes, consciousness work matters. Yes, we must challenge the inner voices of lack and unworthiness. But have we ever stopped to ask: where do these voices come from? While some originate from personal wounds or limiting beliefs, many are shaped—consciously and unconsciously—by systems designed to produce those very thoughts. Poverty isn’t just a condition that individuals suffer in; it’s a tool of control that shapes entire communities and cultures.
Yet if the negative and defeating thoughts are by-products of an oppressive system and all we are doing is addressing our own thoughts then the result is we are merely becoming positive thinkers within a toxic system. I believe we are called to do more than that. Especially as the ones who say we understand how consciousness works.
And if New Thought truly claims to know how to root out originating false ideas and replace them with higher truths, then this work must extend beyond the personal and into the political, beyond affirmation and into action.
After decades in both ministry and justice work, I’ve come to understand this: if we want to improve our individual lives, we must commit to the liberation of all. Anything less is spiritual bypassing. Now that terms gets used a lot these days - so let me clarify my use of it here: If we recognize that we have the capacity to shift consciousness, and consciousness is the force behind all conditions and we then choose to improve our own individual thoughts while ignoring the systems that perpetuate the condition - then we are by passing real transformation for mere comfort within a system that is still trying to kill us.
“Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.” - Rev. angel Kyodo williams
We began this journey by affirming that poverty is not metaphysically real. It is not a divine decree, nor a necessary struggle. It is the result of choices - human, systemic, and fixable.
Over the last four parts of this series, we’ve:
Part 1: Debunked poverty as spiritual truth and reframed it as a social invention.
Part 4: Explored circulation as the ethical bridge between prayer and policy and principle.
Now, in the final installment of this series, we ask:
What if prosperity wasn’t just personal, but collective?
What would it mean to build a world where abundance is designed, distributed, and shared?
lets get started.
Deconstructing the Myth of the “Self-Made” Individual
The first thing we must do in cultivating a vision of shared prosperity and liberation is to deconstruct the myth of the “Self-Made” individual. America’s narrative praises the self-made success story: work hard, pull yourself up, and you’ll thrive. But this mythology obscures a deeper truth. No one is truly self-made. Someone taught you to read, to write, to believe in yourself and to walk and feed yourself. You are a product of your environment as much as you are a manifestation of self-agency.
As Matthew Desmond reminds us:
“No one in this country is self-made. We are all standing on top of each other’s shoulders.” - Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America
I take on this myth in my book Freedom from Discord: The Promise of New Thought Liberation Theology and among the things I point out that it was a French aristocrat (Alexis de Tocqueville) who laid bare this myth nearly 200 years ago when traveling and noting his observations of our young nation.
“Tocqueville’s observations and ultimately scathing analysis exposes America’s greatest myths and lays bare the cognitive dissonance of the country’s self-image. The self-made independent spirit of the American White male psyche was wholly and utterly dependent on structures of racial hierarchy, control, and submission. Not much has changed.” - Freedom From Discord
Every road, every school, every safety net—these are collective creations, not individual achievements. America is great, communities are great - because of what they accomplish when we work together, not in isolation.
The spiritual roots of Oneness call us to see prosperity not as personal triumph, but as communal responsibility. We must begin to cultivate the awareness that there is more than enough to create a shared abundance.
Spiritual Case for Collective Prosperity
Next, we must begin to build the case for collective prosperity. If all beings are interconnected, then prosperity that lifts only a few is incomplete. Real abundance is embodied in systems that flow together in spiritual solidarity - engineered to uplift all, not hoard for some. As I’ve shared before:
“Prosperity is the out-picturing of a collective consciousness rooted in trust, justice, and divine sufficiency.” - Rev. David Alexander, The Liberation Lens, Lie of Poverty Series
This is not just spiritual theory. It is the most practical, and moral approach to creating a world that works for everyone. Think of it like electricity: it cannot brighten one room in isolation if the circuit is broken. We are only fully powered when our systems, whether economic, social, or ecological are energetically connected. Everything works together for our good… only if everything is working.
Yet in a society dominated by separation and fear, we continually sever the circuit. We privatize abundance and socialize risk. We allow wealth to pool in the hands of a few while millions go without. And then we spiritualize that inequality - calling it “freedom,” “success,” or even “God’s favor.” This is not just bad theology. It is spiritually and socially bankrupt individualism that flies in the face of our inherent Oneness and interconnection.
Shariff Abdullah writes in Creating a World That Works for All:
“When we live in a society based on exclusion and competition, the illusion of separation is reinforced. But the truth of our interconnection cannot be denied without consequence.” - Shariff Abdullah, Creating a World That Works for All.
And the consequences are vast.
We are already paying the price—morally and materially for failing to embrace collective prosperity:
Financially, we spend trillions on the consequences of poverty, inequality, and despair: emergency medical care, incarceration, underfunded schools, and militarized policing.
Socially, we suffer the breakdown of community trust, the fraying of democratic norms, and the rise of extremism born from economic desperation.
Spiritually, we endure a culture of loneliness, scarcity, and isolation—even amidst material abundance.
As Ezra Klein writes in the book Abundance, our refusal to redesign systems around collective thriving has become a kind of spiritual and civic malnourishment:
“The real scarcity isn’t material—it’s imagination. We’ve accepted a world where suffering is inevitable and solutions are optional. That’s not policy. That’s despair masquerading as realism.” - Abundance
The high cost of our current path is not theoretical - it is measurable in lives lost, opportunities missed, and communities fractured. This toxic individualism based on scarcity has fully metastasized in our body politics wit the passing of the so called Big Beautiful Bill. Collectively it has taken decades of fear, scarcity and othering based toxic thoughts and codified them into public policy. The result? millions of Americans set to lose health care, food security, and access to public education all while funding tax cuts for the wealthy and massive spending on ICE and their unlawful practices terrorizing our communities. (read more about impact of this bill here)
And, I need you to hear me beloveds: we cannot pray, meditate, or affirm our way out of this unless we are also willing to build new circuits of care, circulation, and shared power.
To reject collective prosperity is to reject the sacred truth of Oneness.
“…we cannot pray, meditate, or affirm our way out of this unless we are also willing to build new circuits of care, circulation, and shared power.”
If Spirit is indivisible, then our prosperity must be as well. It must be designed, demanded, and distributed collectively. This is not socialism; this is spiritual alignment. This is the consciousness of the Beloved Community, not as a vague spiritual idea, but a tangible concrete reality, in action.
The good news? We still have time to choose differently. But not forever.
A Justice-Based Economy: Imagine It
Now let us dare to radically visualize what a spiritual economy—rooted in justice, equity, and abundance—might truly look like. Not as distant idealism, but as sacred blueprint. Not as fantasy, but as faith in action.
We begin by imagining what Ezra Klein calls in Abundance a “policy of care” - a government that acts not as a manager of scarcity, but as a steward of shared potential. Klein reminds us that the true bottleneck in solving our biggest problems is not money, or resources, or innovation, but political will and moral imagination. As he puts it:
“The constraint is not material. The constraint is what we’ve been willing to build, who we’ve been willing to include, and how much we’ve been willing to believe in each other.” - Abundance
A justice-based economy dares to believe.
It looks like budgets grounded in compassion—where government spending reflects not fear or profit, but reverence for life. Healthcare, housing, clean water, and nutritious food are not “entitlements”—they are manifestations of love in policy form. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called this the Beloved Community—a society in which the economic and social structures express the divine nature of justice, dignity, and radical inclusion.
It looks like Universal Basic Income—not as political bait, but as a spiritual affirmation that every life is sacred and inherently sufficient. Imagine how much more creative, generous, and joyful you would be if your basic needs were already met. Now multiply that by millions. Imagine a society in which people no longer live in fear of eviction or hunger, but in the freedom to flourish. That is not socialism—that is soul alignment.
It looks like healthcare and education treated as rights, not privileges—where the dignity of the body and the awakening of the mind are protected as essential aspects of our divine inheritance. Where birth is not into precarity, but promise. Where children are born not into debt, but into design.
It looks like reparations as sacred rebalancing—not charity, not guilt, but the moral and energetic restoration of relationships long broken. To repair is to restore the flow. As any spiritual teacher will tell you: nothing new can flow through a blocked channel. We cannot manifest true prosperity while withholding justice. As I often say: “It’s called appreciation for a reason.” When we make things right in the world, the energy flows and prosperity grows.
And make no mistake: this isn’t naïve dreaming. This is prophetic imagination. This is the soul aligning with structure. This is what Jesus referred to as the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth—not a place we go, but a reality we build. It is what the Hebrew prophets demanded, what the Buddha envisioned, what Black freedom theology calls liberation in the land of the living.
“What we suffer from today is not a lack of money, but a lack of vision.”- Ezra Klein, Abundance
A justice-based economy is not merely possible—it is imperative. And if we close our eyes and listen deeply, we will hear that something within our soul already knows it. Knows it and longs for it. We were not created for separation. We were not born to hoard. We are here to circulate love, build justice, and manifest a world where everyone has enough—because everyone is enough.
“Those who put wealth into useful work that contributes to the welfare of the masses are the salvation of the country.” - Charles Fillmore
Getting Practical: Abundance in Action
In the book Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson critique a system that chooses scarcity despite its capacity for plenty. They call for a politics of productivity and progress: “Build, baby, build” by removing barriers to housing, clean energy, and infrastructure .
“For years, we knew what we needed to build…and we simply didn’t build it.” - Abundance
This resonates deeply with our Liberation Lens framework: collective prosperity requires government that crafts abundance, not just manages fear.
These include:
Streamlining permitting processes to end housing crises
Accelerating green infrastructure
Avoiding “everything-bagel liberalism” that stalls outcomes
We need policies that measure lives improved, not lines of code or bureaucratic efficiency. So, how do we do that? I was stumped at first too. Then I remembered my dear friend Shariff, author of Creating a World that Works for All, and our many long coffee meetings in Portland OR.
Shariff Abdullah’s Wisdom on “Enough”
Shariff Abdullah, teaches a powerful vision of enoughness: that enough is not a limit - it is the well from which we flourish together.
He reminds us that abundance is not about more, it’s about suficiency. It’s about having enough. No matter how good a meal is, you can’t hoard it in your body, you’ll be bloated and ruin a good meal. The best enjoyment of a good meal is in knowing when to stop, because you are well nourished, satisfied. A consciousness of Enough encourages us to honor sufficiency and stewardship, not greed or waste.
Through his eyes, collective prosperity is a spiritual ecosystem where:
Enough for one means enough for all
Life is shared, not hoarded
Wealth is distributed and dignity restored
Making It Real: Circulation & Collective Action
The Abundance vision and Shared Prosperity systems converge when we build well—with purpose, justice, and heart. And its something we all have the capacity to activate in our own practice by becoming conduits of divine flow:
Donating, advocating, voting for equitable services.
Participating in mutual aid, cooperatives, and co-investment, shared prosperity models (such as substack) and spiritually grounded circulation practices (such as tithing)
Supporting reparations as ethical & spiritual redress.
Holding governments accountable to build—housing, transit, justice systems.
Repairers of the Breach is one such organization that is doing this work.
Affirming Our Shared Destiny
“We thrive together—because we are one thread in a greater tapestry.”
“Our shared flourishing is our divine design.”
“I commit to systems that serve community and Spirit.”
Reflection Questions:
When did you believe “I built this alone”?
What collective systems can you help nourish—through giving, policy, or presence?
How do you define “enough”? What is enough to fill your soul and your society?
Your Next Move
Join the 40 Days of Abundance on New Thought Education - and cultivate your abundance mindset.
Share this series with others, participate in the comments and let’s get more people talking about abundance from this collective liberation lens perspective.
Ask your elected leaders for a spiritual / moral economy—budgets that heal, laws that build, policies that circulate for the greater good.
We rise higher when we build together, when abundance circulates through every corner of the circuit.
Thank you for journeying through The Lie of Poverty Series. I am currently in the process of transforming this series into an online course - this will include live classroom sessions (zoom or here on Substack), a PDF workbook with reading assignments from the books I referenced throughout the series, videos, reflection questions and spiritual exercises. It will be 6 weeks and priced around $125 (released on the fall of 2025) - however, I plan to make it FREE for my paid subscribers here on Substack. So upgrade today and get access to this course when its ready. Thank you for demonstrating economic solidarity, circulation and abundance!
Rev. David Alexander D.D. is the spiritual director of the Spiritual Living Center of Atlanta, author of Freedom from Discord: The Promise of New Thought Liberation Theology and Recovery from the Lie of Whiteness. David writes a monthly column, Philosophy In Action in Science of Mind Magazine.