The Prosperity priority
By Ben Everidge for Thomas
Image: Adobe Stock generated with AI by Carmen K. Sisson
A 21st century affordability policy for the U.s…
The Prosperity Priority provides a three-level framework for national economic renewal by aligning opportunity, strategic partnership, and transformational investment to build lasting prosperity for current and future generations.
The Prosperity Priority: A 3x3 Framework
The Prosperity Priority is the domestic companion to the Three Trinity Doctrine. While the Three Trinity Doctrine provides a framework for responsible American leadership abroad, the Prosperity Priority establishes a clear structure for rebuilding economic opportunity at home.
The framework recognizes that lasting prosperity does not happen by accident. It requires clear priorities, effective tools, and disciplined evaluation of where investment will create the greatest benefit for the American people.
The Prosperity Priority, therefore, operates through three levels of three considerations:
Interlocking Goals | What national outcomes must prosperity achieve
Chosen Instruments | What tools will drive economic growth
Transformational Investments | Where should America invest for generational impact?
Together, these levels form a 3x3 framework for national prosperity.
Level One: The Interlocking Goals
Before choosing policies, the nation must understand what prosperity is meant to accomplish. The Prosperity Priority identifies three goals that should guide economic policy:
Opportunity | Every American should have access to meaningful, well-paying work and the chance to advance through talent, education, and hard effort.
Resilience | The nation must maintain economic strength and independence in critical industries such as healthcare, energy, food production, and advanced manufacturing.
Generational Mobility | Economic progress should allow each generation to move forward, not fall behind the generation before it.
These goals ensure that prosperity is measured not only by economic growth but also by the upward mobility of American families. If your quality of life and living do not improve, we have failed you. That’s the standard we operate by.
Level Two: The Chosen Instruments
Once the goals are clear, policymakers must determine how prosperity will be built.
The Prosperity Priority identifies three primary tools:
Public Leadership | Strategic national direction through responsible government action, infrastructure investment, and regulatory clarity.
Private Enterprise | The innovation and productivity generated by American entrepreneurs, companies, and investors.
Philanthropic Partnership | Mission-driven investment through foundations, nonprofits, and public-private-philanthropic partnerships that advance social progress alongside economic growth.
Together, these instruments combine the strengths of government, markets, and civil society into a coordinated economic strategy.
Level Three: Transformational Investments
Finally, the Prosperity Priority focuses national investment on sectors capable of producing long-term economic transformation.
Three initiatives illustrate this approach:
Medical Innovation Zones (MIZ) | Regional hubs for biotechnology, medical manufacturing, and healthcare innovation designed to create high-wage jobs and strengthen national health resilience.
The American Transformational Innovation Trust (AT-IT) | A national investment platform that funds breakthrough industries and large-scale economic initiatives capable of reshaping the American economy.
National Mobility and Infrastructure Initiative | Modern transportation and infrastructure systems that connect regions, expand opportunity, and increase national productivity.
These investments represent the kinds of long-term commitments that allow the United States to remain the world’s most innovative and prosperous economy.
How The Prosperity Priority Works
The Prosperity Priority encourages policymakers to evaluate economic initiatives through three questions:
Goals | Does this policy expand opportunity, strengthen resilience, or advance generational mobility?
Instruments | Does it effectively combine public leadership, private enterprise, and philanthropic partnership?
Investments | Does it support transformational initiatives capable of producing long-term national prosperity?
This approach ensures that economic policy remains focused on outcomes that benefit American workers, families, and communities.
Why The Prosperity Priority Matters
For many Americans, economic opportunity feels increasingly uncertain. Rising costs, technological change, and global competition have created anxiety about the future.
The Prosperity Priority offers a clear national commitment: to build an economy that rewards innovation while ensuring that the benefits of growth reach the people who power it.
By aligning national goals, strategic tools, and transformational investments, The Prosperity Priority seeks to create a future in which prosperity is broad-based, durable, and generational.