The Hope Axis by Anna Gát Eli Dourado - Avoiding Societal Collapse, Complexity, and the Path to Abundance
Feb 18, 2026
Eli Dourado, Head of Strategic Investments at Astra and former Abundance Institute staffer, brings his expertise on growth, technology, and resilience. He revisits why complexity leads to diminishing returns. Short, sharp conversations on stagnation, elite incentives, resource subsidies, and how technology and narratives might expand our future.
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Total Factor Productivity Explains Stagnation
- Total Factor Productivity (TFP) best captures real economic progress and has sharply slowed since the 1970s.
- Slower TFP growth explains why digital change feels fast but broad living standards haven't risen consistently.
Hungary As A Frozen Collapse
- Anna describes modern Hungary as a frozen collapse under centralized authoritarian measures.
- She warns such ossification postpones rather than solves long-term social decline.
Society As A Problem-Solving Machine
- Joseph Tainter frames societies as problem-solving systems that create hierarchy to manage solutions.
- Complexity grows because each solution breeds new administrative needs, creating self-reinforcing overhead.
