When the negative economic effects of this pandemic begin to manifest themselves in exponential, long-term ways, we will witness, I believe, a powerful clash between two gospels: The gospel of plenty vs. The gospel of generosity.

The one is informed by the trinity of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which is, as often as not, interchangeable with the pursuit of property. The other is in formed by faith, hope, and love--a very particular faith, a concrete hope, and a non-fuzzy love.

The one is driven by the need to preserve the “American way of life,” with its emphasis on self-realization, the freedom to do as one pleases, on one’s own terms, and the pursuit of maximal satisfaction, largely defined by the possession of "planned obsolescence" things.