WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday authored an op-ed for the American Prospect arguing that, by elevating individualism over the common good, neoliberalism has made it harder for Americans to find happiness. Murphy advocated for a public policy that promotes connection and rebuilds a sense of obligation to community.

“We want to be with other people,” Murphy wrote. “We want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. When social isolation becomes the norm and our culture and economy send signals that contributing to the common good is a sucker’s game, that unsurprisingly drives societal anxiety and breakdown. We do not want to be living on islands, and we rebel when the waters start surrounding us. But a half-century of neoliberal economic and social order have placed Americans further away from connection and higher purpose than at any other time in our nation’s history. And the consequence is a nation whose citizens feel as if it’s falling apart at the seams.”

Murphy pointed to the failure of neoliberal policies to protect Americans’ pursuit of happiness: “Neoliberalism holds that individuals should be self-reliant and resilient, and that lightly regulated and incentivized private markets will deliver the building blocks of happiness and fulfillment. Despite this promise, neoliberalism has delivered the opposite: a fragmented, atomistic, balkanized culture, and a dog-eat-dog, winner-take-all economy. Unregulated smartphone technology and social media addicts us in virtual worlds. The ascent and dominance of companies like Amazon and Google and Walmart has erased local economies and local identity. Lightly regulated markets have not delivered broad-based prosperity, but instead an economy of scarcity that pits workers and consumers against each other in a contest for the table scraps left over after the elites finish dining.”

On his work with Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox to restore the common good, Murphy wrote: “We’ve had good early discussions and I can easily see a set of policies that both Republicans and Democrats can join in supporting to reverse the damaging impacts of decades of unbridled economic neoliberalism. For example, we know that healthy membership organizations—from churches to labor unions—are most often where people find companionship and higher purpose. Why can’t government work more purposefully to help these institutions grow their ability to reach more people? Or what about the growing right-left consensus on social media regulation? TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram facilitate our withdrawal from one another, and there is an increasing belief that the government needs to step in and curtail the addictive technology that sucks us into our phones and away from much more fulfilling, in-person experiences. Finally, expanding public-service programs is a way to connect people—especially at a formative age—with the psychological high that comes from giving back to your community and putting the welfare of others first. It’s a targeted but powerful way to give more people access to the positive feeling of working for the common good.”

Murphy concluded: “America’s seminal founding document, the Declaration of Independence, commands government to guarantee every citizen the right to pursue happiness. This right has been systematically undermined by neoliberalism’s canonization of the individual and devaluation of the common good. It’s time for policymakers to realize that if we don’t invest in policies that reconnect us to each other and build our sense of obligation to community, not just our own success, that inalienable right will just keep drifting further and further out of reach.”

Read the full op-ed here.

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