Statue of Responsibility

From Fear to Framework: Reclaiming the Future with TPI and Responsibility

To follow up on last week’s discussion about Rights and Responsibilities, I’d like to shift the focus more intentionally toward the responsibility side of the equation.

But before diving in, it's worth noting a recent report: American consumer confidence has fallen to one of its lowest points in the past 12 years—a troubling indicator of growing economic pessimism.

While the headlines focus on inflation, market volatility, and global uncertainty, a deeper question lingers beneath the surface: Why do so many feel powerless in the face of these changes?

The answer may lie not just in economic forces, but in our national mindset—and how we choose to measure what really matters.

The Power of Time: Rethinking Progress Through the Time Price Index

Economist Gale Pooley’s Time Price Index (TPI) offers a powerful lens to understand economic progress—and its perceived absence. Unlike traditional inflation metrics, the Time Price Index measures how many hours of labor a person must work to purchase a good or service. If it takes more time today than in the past, the TPI rises—signaling a decline in affordability. If it takes less time, the TPI falls, reflecting not just greater efficiency, but an increase in embedded knowledge and human progress.

In essence, falling time prices indicate that the world is getting smarter, not just richer. Products become cheaper in terms of time because innovation makes them better, faster, and more widely accessible. This is real economic growth—growth fueled by knowledge.

Introducing a Second TPI: Total Personal Involvement

This concept sparked a thought: What if we applied a second meaning to TPI—Total Personal Involvement?

While Pooley’s TPI measures economic affordability, Total Personal Involvement is a cultural tool—a way for individuals to measure their personal contribution to progress. It flips the script on passive economic spectatorship. Instead of asking, “What’s going to happen to me?” we begin to ask, “What am I doing to shape what happens next?”

Incorporating TPI into the public vocabulary could provide a valuable shift—from vague, fear-based speculation about the economy to clear, action-based self-assessment. It turns helplessness into agency.

Responsibility: The Missing Half of the National Equation

As I touched on last week, this idea ties into a deeper and enduring truth: the delicate balance between rights and responsibilities. A friend once shared a powerful insight that has stayed with me—rights and responsibilities must always be held in tension, like the wings of a bird. If one outweighs the other, flight becomes impossible.

When rights are emphasized without a corresponding weight of responsibility, we begin to drift toward an entitlement-based mindset. This often manifests in systems that overextend promises without grounding them in contribution—systems where benefits are expected without effort, outcomes are demanded without ownership, and liberty is mistaken for license. While well-intentioned, such models tend to lean toward forms of collectivism or socialism that, over time, lose their capacity to sustain innovation, productivity, and self-reliance. Eventually, the system becomes overburdened and collapses under the weight of its own guarantees.

Conversely, when responsibilities are demanded without honoring the individual's rights, we tip toward authoritarianism. Control replaces trust, conformity replaces creativity, and obedience becomes more valued than individual conscience or contribution. While this may produce short-term order, it erodes the soul of a free society. People lose the sense that their voice matters, that their effort is meaningful, and that their dignity is protected. History has shown us, time and again, that such systems may last for a time, but they are ultimately unsustainable—they crush the human spirit.

The only sustainable path is balance.

And balance doesn’t begin in governments or institutions—it begins in individuals. In families. In communities. It begins with people who recognize that liberty is not just about access; it’s about stewardship. Rights give us freedom to choose, speak, and build—but responsibilities give those freedoms their shape and purpose.

To live in a society that endures, we must cultivate citizens who don’t just demand their rights, but who carry them with humility and integrity—who see freedom not as a free-for-all, but as a sacred trust. This is the essence of sustainable civic life: not entitlement, not control, but stewardship. A culture where rights and responsibilities dance in step, held together by a shared commitment to something greater than the self.

That’s why the proposed Statue of Responsibility is more than just a monument. Positioned as a symbolic bookend to the Statue of Liberty, this movement captures a foundational truth: Freedom is incomplete without responsibility. The statue, envisioned by Holocaust survivor and author Viktor Frankl, reminds us that maintaining liberty requires active contribution, not passive consumption.

When we embrace Total Personal Involvement, we breathe life into that ideal. We begin to reclaim the future not just through economic growth, but through personal growth—by holding ourselves accountable for how we show up in our families, workplaces, communities, and country.

A National Reset

We’re living in a time of disruption and doubt—but that also means we’re living in a time ripe for recalibration. Economic pessimism doesn’t have to be a dead end. It can be a signal to rethink how we measure value, and how we define our roles in society.

Gale Pooley’s Time Price Index tells us the world may actually be improving more than we realize. Total Personal Involvement challenges us to take responsibility.

Together, these ideas—and the mission of the Statue of Responsibility—invite us to become participants, not bystanders. They urge us to recognize that the future isn’t something we passively endure. It’s something we actively build.

About the Author
Eric Stats, CFA is passionate about exploring big ideas that shape lasting impact, including:
• Building a resilient, 200-year family legacy
• Why entrepreneurialism is the greatest miracle of our time – lifting millions out of severe poverty and leading the world to flourish
• The often-overlooked abundance that surrounds us every day

You can connect with Eric through Brighton Wealth Management or via email at stats@brightonwealth.com.

To dive deeper into the concept of abundance, Eric highly recommends Superabundance by Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley. The book offers compelling evidence—and hundreds of real-world examples—showing how more people with more freedom create more resources and opportunities for everyone. Learn more at superabundance.com.