Is Abundance Inevitable? A 100-Year Vision with McKinsey’s Chris Bradley
What if the “Black Mirror” version of the future is wrong? In this episode, Mike Palmer talks with Chris Bradley , Senior Partner at McKinsey and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) , about his new book, A Century of Plenty: A Story of Progress for Generations to Come .
Chris breaks down the “Machine of Progress” and explains why a “strategic optimism” mindset is essential for navigating the next century. We explore a future where global prosperity could reach Swiss standards, the radical shifts in our demographics, and why AI might actually make us more human.
Key Takeaways:
🌟 The Power of Strategic Optimism : Why historical data shows that humanity’s “fingerprint” is progress, not scarcity.
🇨🇭 The Swiss Benchmark : A thought experiment on whether the global economy can grow 8.5x to ensure every person on Earth lives as well as the Swiss do today.
📉 The Demographic Cliff : How shrinking birth rates in countries like China and South Korea are making productivity growth a “do or die” necessity for our social systems.
🤖 AI as an Augmentation Tool : Why the highest employment growth is happening in the most AI-exposed fields and how “The O-Ring Theory” explains the rising value of human judgment.
🎓 Reimagining Education : A provocative look at why the education sector has seen high inflation but low innovation, and how AI tutors could ensure “no child is left behind”.
🍎 The Non-Zero-Sum World : Moving past the “Petri dish” mindset to understand how resources like energy and capital can expand to meet global needs.
Key Resources:
📘 Book : A Century of Plenty: A Story of Progress for Generations to Come .
📊 MGI Report : Agents, Robots, and Us .
🏒 Chris’s Previous Bestseller : Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick .
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Smit, S., Bradley, C., Leung, N., Canal, M., Bush, J., Chen, S., Chettih, S., Mischke, J., & Seong, J. (2026). A Century of Plenty: A Story of Progress for Generations to Come . McKinsey Global Institute.
