For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future / Cheap-Library.com
For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future
Herman E. Daly, John B. Cobb Jr.
Winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order 1992, Named New Options Best Political BookEconomist Herman Daly and theologian John Cobb, Jr., demonstrate how conventional economics and a growth-oriented industrial economy have led us to the brink of environmental disaster, and show the possibility of a different future.Named as one of the Top 50 Sustainability Books by University of Cambridges Programme for Sustainability Leadership and Greenleaf Publishing.
$6.96 (USD)
Publisher: Beacon Press
Release date: 1994
Format: PDF
Size: 2.21 MB
Language: English
Pages: 534
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Summary of
For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future
By Herman E. Daly & John B. Cobb Jr. with contributions by Clifford W. Cobb
Summary written by T.A. O'Lonergan, Conflict Research Consortium
Citation: For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future, Herman E. Daly & John B. Cobb Jr. with contributions by Clifford W. Cobb, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989), 476pp.
For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future is required reading for ARSC 5020/7020 as taught by Professors Michael Glantz and Jim Wescoat. This work will be of interest to those who seek an alternative to market approaches to policy-making. The co-authors have divided the book into four parts. The first part examines economics as an academic discipline and addresses the fallacy of misplaced concreteness in economics and other disciplines. Thus, the authors emphasize the abstract nature of: the market, measuring economic success, and the abstractions involved in the economic conception of land. The authors challenge the two assumptions which support the economic theory of human nature: first, that human wants are insatiable and, second, the law-like status of the principle of diminishing marginal utility.
Part Two outlines the shift which must occur if the economy is to be redirected along the lines suggested by the authors. Daly and Cobb propose that economic theory move from being an academic discipline to thought in service of community. They propose a shift in the economic view of human nature from an atomistic one to a contextual one which will require a move from cosmopolitanism to multiple smaller communities which themselves form larger communities.
The third part addresses policies which would support community in the United States. The authors examine policies concerning: free trade, population, land use, agriculture, industry, labour and income. They propose that the United States move away from a policy which strives toward world domination toward a policy which would result in true national security. The final part offers possible approaches to achieving the goals advocated. First, the authors offer possible steps toward a redirection of the economy and second, they present what they assert to be a religious vision. The authors believe that a realignment toward focus upon the biosphere and away from focus upon the environment as multiple resources for human use is supported by their Christian theist belief system. They do not address the negative environmental impact that has historically been justified by practitioners of monotheist religions or how their belief system (a monotheist one) hopes to avoid these historical difficulties.
For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future offers suggestions for the de-emphasis of economics and the emphasis of community and the environment. While the authors offer Christian theology in support of their suggestions, the offer is not necessary for the arguments in the book to be compelling.
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Paula L. Craig
4.0 out of 5 starsLet's hear it for the common good!July 4, 2005
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I have been a fan of Professor Daly's for some time. This book has some excellent analysis and some truly great commentary. The writing is a bit dry; if you're new to Professor Daly's work, you might want to try one of his other books first, like "Beyond Growth." "For the Common Good" does have some wonderfully thought-provoking lines. Just to give you a taste: "Economics cannot do without simplifying assumptions, but the trick is to use the right assumptions at the right time." Or, with regards to relying on technological fixes for environmental problems: "It is one thing to say that knowledge will grow (no one rejects that), but it is something else to presuppose that the content of new knowledge will abolish old limits faster than it discovers new ones." Another on the same subject: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it; if you must tinker, save all the pieces; and if you don't know where you're going, slow down." On population control: "Nature's way is not always best, but in this instance it seems more responsible than our current practice of allowing new human beings to be unintended by-products of the sexual fumblings of teenagers whose natural urges have been stimulated by drugs, alcohol, TV, and ill-constructed welfare incentives." Daly's Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare deserves to be far better known than it is. The analysis of misplaced concreteness, especially as it relates to the nature of debt, is very good.
The authors sometimes come across as a little naive in this book. For example, they propose making the government the employer of last resort. I think they do not realize just how hard it is to make such programs work; they inevitably decline into a morass of dependency and corruption. The Washington DC municipal government has taken precisely this approach in the past few decades, with predictable results.
I think the authors would also do well to do some research on the failures of utopian communities; since I was raised a Mormon, I know a lot about some of these. The chapter on religion strikes me as a bit silly. They want to bring God into the building of a more humane society; this is not necessarily bad, but I tend to think that science will take us farther than God will. In my opinion, Christianity's idea that the Second Coming of Christ is not far off is a very serious barrier to giving humanity's long-term future the attention it deserves. Talking about ethics, the authors say "But to believe that God does exist makes the ethical life more authentic." Well, that's only true if God really does exist, which I doubt.
Overall, the book has some excellent points to make. If you're interested in economics and public policy, don't miss it.
12 people found this helpful
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Steve Diput
5.0 out of 5 starsNot your ordinary mechanical view of the economyFebruary 4, 2015
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Certainly an unusual book, not the mainstream babbling about the mechanism but goes deeper into UNDERSTANDING of the economy as an interaction between humans, and us with Nature.
Interestingly, some ideas mentioned are from antiquity and some others from Frederick Soddy, a Nobel winner but NOT in economics. Therefore economists usually do not even hear about him (I have a PhD in the field and read about him only here).
Of course Herman Daly presents us with results of his own thinking, and it is both unexpected and useful.
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Matt
5.0 out of 5 starsEthics of Society Delving Into Poverty, Capitalism, and What We Need To DoFebruary 28, 2016
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A truly great and indepth book on the issue of Ethics and society and what we should do in regards to the under priviledged and destitue.
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paul
5.0 out of 5 starsWoven togetherDecember 1, 2013
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Classic Daly. Refuting the notion, misappropriated from Adams, that individuals acting for individual reasons benefit society as a whole --- Daly reveals the intricate and interconnectedness of society, economy and the environment.
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Carlos R. Nagel
4.0 out of 5 starsFour StarsJuly 28, 2015
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This is an iconic book to understand the importance of social and environmental factors in the the economic processes
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Douglas Doepke
5.0 out of 5 starsHumane and incisiveAugust 24, 2000
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Because of the large number of issues and sometimes conflicting solutions proposed, this is a difficult book to classify. Key, however, is the authors' profound refusal to subordinate the common good of the community to the god of the free market. This does not mean the elimination of markets where they have proven effective and non-destructive. It does mean keeping their operation within strict limits, so that people can regain a sense of community and a sustainable environment. Much of the book is taken up with showing the limits of market theory and practice, and in that sense should be studied by all with an interest in America's secular religion. Proposed solutions are decidedly non-ideological and largely eclectic. Both the left and the right should find points of agreement. All in all, this is an invaluable guide to many of the planet's most pressing problems and should be required reading for college undergraduates.
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