The final element in our pyramid of abundance is freedom. This may seem a tall order, but it’s a critical one. In his 1999 book Development as Freedom, the Nobel Prize–winning economist Amartya Sen pointed out that political liberty moves in lockstep with sustainable development. Since abundance, by definition, is a sustainable goal, then a certain level of freedom is the prerequisite for reaching that goal. Luckily, a certain level of freedom also emerges organically in response to certain new technologies—especially those of the communication and information variety.
